Will Ontario Lead The Way For Canadian Online Gambling?
July 20, 2024
It turns out that signs seem to be clearly indicating that as of late Ontario is taking on more of a leadership role with respect to online gambling. Following is a brief summary of what is really going on and how this may in fact have far reaching implications throughout Canada.
In order to best understand what is really going on with Ontario and online gambling it is helpful to take a step backward and contemplate possible motivations. As in asking the rather poignant question of what does Ontario look to gain from any sort of expansion of online gambling? Here you will not be surprised to learn that at the end of the day it comes down to the amount of expected revenue to be gained.
As you must have noticed with news stories popping up all over the world from locations that were formerly opposed to online gambling, the new reality is that quite a number of local governments around the world suddenly find themselves scrambling to fill gaping holes in the budget. That is exactly what is going on in Ontario.
You might have seen further evidence on this sort of thing from a recent broadcast from CBC that pointed out the unmistakable, some would say catastrophic drop in the sale of lottery tickets throughout Ontario. Specifically, the report most especially highlighted the drop in the sales of the Big Ticket lotteries such as Lotto 649 and Lotto Max. Reading between the lines with this report, you can rather easily figure out that one key issue is the failure to attract the so-called millennial crowd.
That is, the citizens and residents that are aged 18 to 34 years old that are prime spenders. The fact of the matter is that it is this key demographic that Ontario is looking to attract as it seriously contemplates the expansion of online gambling action throughout the area. Interestingly, the CBC report did not really go into a parallel issue, the fact that quite a number of online casino players from Canada have no problem venturing online to online gambling sites in other locales.
In other words, if the online gambling fans don’t have an enticing online gambling site in Canada, they will find one elsewhere. Naturally this also means the Canadian governments get no part of this action. Thus the sudden motivation seen in Ontario to at least take a serious look at legal online casino action.
