Authorities of the Canadian province Alberta revealed that they are considering expanding the local gambling market and limiting the inequity between casinos in rural and urban areas. That was the information announced by Robin Campbell, the Finance Minister of Alberta.
During the convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, Minister Campbell announced that the province will most probably use the money generated from online gambling activities to aid the rural charities.
Mr. Campbell put emphasis on the fact that the rural charities are neglected in favor of the urban ones and that needs to change. Apparently, he saw an opportunity for achieving that goal by applying a better equalization of the gaming profits.
Expectedly, his announcement gathered opponents and County of Barrhead Deputy Reeve Bill Lee was among them. He said that he was really discontent with the fact that the charitable groups located in the rural areas would receive considerably higher financial aid, as compared to those in the urban regions.
It seems like Alberta officials have taken the online gambling issue quite seriously as Minister Campbell recently announced in an interview for a local media that the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission is looking for a vendor willing to take the responsibility of managing the online gambling affairs of the province.Once again, he pointed to the fact that urban and rural charities should receive equal amounts of money.
In addition, the Minister said that the online gambling-related issue is expected to be solved at a later stage this year.
The gray markets also pose a problem to the legal expansion of the online gambling sector in Alberta and according to the estimates, the “leakage” totals $150 million.
As mentioned, key political figures accused Alberta authorities of trying to deceive the legislature by expanding the gambling segment.
What is more, they expressed their concerns that gambling is likely to cause really serious social issues and added that there was no point in raising money from gambling and then, funding organizations that deal with problem gambling or criminal offences. Making a problem, which is already serious, even more complicated, was not favorable to the well-being of Alberta at all.
The majority of opponents of the online gambling expansion believe that if residents of the province had been provided with more information about the gambling expansion, they would have disagreed with it.
