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Quebec Gets Online Gambling

Posted on November 22nd, 2010

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The warnings of analysts in Canada against online gambling may have fallen on deaf ears. The virtual success of the other Canadian province that had adopted online gambling may have encouraged Quebec to follow suit. Hot on the trail of British Columbia, which launched their gambling site only a few months ago, is Quebec with its gaming authority branching out the province’s gambling activities. From traditional casinos and video lottery terminals, the province has also started venturing into online gambling. The body, Loto-Québec launched its online gambling site, Espacejeux, last Friday.

The sire has already accepted membership from the residents. However registered members stil are not ahble to play before December 1. The official availability of all the site’s games like blackjack, poker, and roulette will be on the next day, and can be accessed by registered members 24 hours a day. Interested players, on that date, will be able to play after registration. As of the moment, and unless rules change, which is highly unlikely, only adult residents of Quebec are allowed to register and play on the Espacejeux site. Registered players can place their wagers with their credit cards, debit cards as well as through online bill payment.

To be offered starting December 2 will be eight varieties of poker games and table games like roulette, baccarat and blackjack. The operators of the website have mentioned their plans of adding sports betting and bingo once the website stabilizes. Alain Cousineau, the Chief Executive Officer of Loto-Québec said the site should prove to be the better alternative to the other gambling sites that currently exist in the web and are being patronized by the province’s residents. He added, “It’s a better model to offer a responsible alternative.”

The eight poker games in the website have a platform created by a partnership of Loto-Quebec and the British Columbia Lottery Corp. The joint platform is housed in Montreal and provided by G2, a subsidiary of GTECH. The customer account management software is provided OpenBet Ltd., a company which is also responsible for a number of the cyber table games. The site stipulates that adult Quebec residents must provide proof of identity so that they can be verified and would be `allowed to play at the various “table games” of the Espacejeux site. The same procedure is being implemented on the B.C. adults for them to be allowed to play in the British Columbia online gambling site. As of the moment, the B.C. site only offers table games. But once the common platform for poker will be up and running, the gamblers from British Columbia can play with their Quebec counterparts at the in enjoying the poker tables.

One of the tests the Quebec venture will be facing, as the BC one did already, is having to secure enough players to ensure would-be gamblers will find a game to start as soon as possible whenever they want to play. A lot of start-up online sites have found it hard to retain customers because a lot of them find it extremely long to wait for a table to be filled before they could start playing, so they end up leaving the table.

As with most areas operating online gaming facilities, critics have continually advised Quebec not to get into online gambling, as it will only promote the practice of young people getting into gambling and gamblers eventually losing money. Cousineau was quick to point out that his company’s site will be implementing rigid controls for underage players and problem gamblers not to be allowed from engaging their website’s services. Cousineau was then asked by the press if the site would have safeguards against under-aged players that may steal their parent’s information such as credit card numbers so that they could sign up. He quickly said that there will be the steps in the registration and payment processes that would flag these situations. People trying to register would need to give the site confidential banking information, their address, phone number, and all information will be verified by an external company. The site will also send a letter to the credit or debit card holder so that they will be alerted about their registration to the site.