The government-owned Atlantic Lottery Corporation has started on Tuesday receiving the first wagers from online gamers, as it pioneered a website that sells lottery tickets on the Internet.
Canada pioneers online lottery ticket sales
On Tuesday, the government-owned Atlantic Lottery Corporation started receiving the first wagers from online gamers, as it pioneered a website that sells lottery tickets on the Internet.
By midday over 100 customers had wagered on games operated by the C, making it the first publicly owned agency selling virtual lottery tickets in Canada, CNEWS reported.
Atlantic Lottery spokesperson Darlene Doucet said the corporation is particularly interested in people who do their banking, shopping and seek entertainment on the Web.
"We officially launched PlaySphere to offer a service for a group of people who are comfortable online,'' said Doucet.
Despite the initial surge of buyers, Doucet said the corporation isn't expecting a "huge impact'' on ticket sales.
The corporation's forecasts say that within three to five years the website will be earning about $5.9 million from online purchases by residents of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, according to Canada.com.
However, critics say the new website is an indication that Atlantic governments are seeking more betting revenues, despite evidence that gambling leads to addiction and family problems, lotterypost.com reports.
Sol Boxenbaum, a Montreal-based gambling critic and consumer advocate, said the sites appear harmless at first, but their anonymity promotes excessive betting.
"It becomes something one can do from the privacy of the home,'' he said in an interview.
"A lot of people who are spending $100 a week on lotteries are embarassed to do that in a lineup at the shopping mall, but aren't afraid to do that from home.''
However, the Atlantic Lottery Corp. says it has set up a system of checks and balances to ensure the law isn't broken. Gamblers must first register online, providing proof they are at least 19 years old, or 18 in P.E.I., and a resident of Atlantic Canada. A credit information company will verify that players are who they say they are. Then, within minutes, players will be able to buy tickets for any of the games: Lotto 6/49, Atlantic 49, Lotto Super 7, TAG, Atlantic Payday, Pro-Line and Over/Under.
Players can transfer funds directly from their online bank accounts into their website accounts, but not from credit cards.
Most European countries, Australia and the United Kingdom, already allow online lottery ticket sales.
Boxenbaum said these measures might not be enough: "Young people even using the Internet can buy false identification. Kids are very good at creating the ID required for adult activities,'' .
The lottery corporation said in April that a database of 24,000 people who are members of its eClub Rewards website would be a target market for online tickets.
Atlantic Lottery says 75 per cent of all Atlantic Canadian adults play lotteries at least once a year.
In Canada, Criminal Code prevents provincial lottery corporations from selling outside their boundaries.
