Industry News
Alberta Provincial Government & Online Gambling?
The provincial government of Alberta may be on the verge of embracing Internet gambling, according to experts.
An Indian tribe, the Alexander First Nation, located just north of the city of Edmonton, is apparently ready to debut an online gambling center that will host offshore casino firms that want to set up computer servers. The tribe of Native Americas would make its money from licensing and annual operating fees of the computer center, experts said.
Though Internet gambling is illegal in Canada, the Indian Tribe is a sovereign nation, independent, to some extent, from Canadian law. Indian officials said the gamblers won't be Canadian, so there is no jurisdictional issue. The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission wonders whether the operations will be illegal and should be stopped, but thus far, has done nothing to harm the gaming interests.
The tribe sees a good business opportunity and wants to take advantage of that. Gambling Commission chairman Norman Peterson acknowledged that there are lucrative possibilities. "I could think there would be wonderful business opportunities for Internet gambling, but we're not going to do anything without being ratified by our board and without a policy direction coming down through government," said Peterson.
Peterson is correct in that there has been no clear signal that the province wants to expand into Internet gambling right now, but observers said that may well happen, as the province already has a number of casinos. A deal may have to be struck, giving the province a cut of the revenue the tribe will earn by operating the computer servers for online gambling companies, experts said.
Experts are also asking the question "Is it fair to prohibit something that serves customers outside the country?" A Mohawk tribe in Quebec, another Canadian province, has been operating an online facility for offshore gamblers in the same legal limbo for 11 years.
What's more, the British Columbia provincial government has started small lottery games online for its local customers. Can Alberta be far behind? And if it's looking at going down that road, how can it justify shutting down a new center at the Alexander reserve, experts are asking.
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