As province after province continues to legalize online gambling, Nova Scotia has resisted the craze. Although the online gambling movement in Canada is a potentially lucrative temptation, the province has decided to move away from online gambling.
Premier Darrell Dexter has stated that legalizing online gambling is not consistent with the province’s current goals to reduce the potential damage of gaming. He has garnered a great deal of support by taking this stance. Even Finance Minister Graham Steele, who voiced his support of regulating the industry, now stands behind Dexter.
““The thing that struck me was the idea that if we participated in online gambling we would get people into gambling who otherwise wouldn’t,” said Steele.
He states that legalizing the activity would bring new gamblers to the province. However, Nova Scotia wants to reduce the gambling population. Although many provinces believe that gambling benefits the population at large as it provides valuable tax dollars, politicians in Nova Scotia believe that it would do more harm than good to legalize online gambling.
Many provinces are using online gambling to offset their deficits. However, Nova Scotia’s $203 million deficit has not tempted Dexter and Steele to dabble in the industry. They stated that they would rather “do the right thing” and pass on the potential increase in revenue.
