Canadian online gaming jurisdiction criticises Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand and his ‘gratuitous swipe’ taken for ‘political reasons’.
Wednesday 24th February 2010
The Mohawk Council Of Kahnawake has released a statement criticising Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand and statements he made implying that a new state-run online gaming site due to launch soon would hurt the aboriginal jurisdiction.
Loto-Quebec revealed last week that it had received government approval to establish the new site in conjunction the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation in an effort to receive a share of the estimated $600 million online gambling earns each year in Canada.
Loto-Quebec is a state-run provincial lottery operator and will operate and regulate the new site beginning in the autumn. It stated that the new domain would offer measures to weed out problem gamblers including age verification, options for self-exclusion and deposit limits.
The aboriginal reserve of Kahnawake is located within the province of Quebec and hosts online gaming operations through its Mohawk Internet Technologies data centre while regulating third-party operators through the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The Council was upset by statements made by Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand implying that the Loto-Quebec initiative would ‘negatively impact Kahnawake’ and the online gaming initiatives the jurisdiction has undertaken over the past twelve years.
“Minister Bachand either does not understand how the online gaming industry works or is simply using the opportunity to take a gratuitous swipe at Kahnawake for his own political reasons,” read the statement from the Council.
“Loto-Quebec has been authorised to ‘offer online gambling’ and will, therefore, become another online gaming operator offering casino, poker and other games of chance. Loto-Quebec will, therefore, be competing with other established online gaming operators such as PokerStars, Party Gaming, Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet. Many of these operators are licensed by and operate from jurisdictions such as the Isle Of Man, Gibraltar and Alderney. Even for those online gaming operators that are licensed by and operate from Kahnawake, it is difficult to understand how Loto-Quebec's late and limited entry into the market will negatively affect, let alone ‘cannibalize’, these sites.
“In short, Loto-Quebec will not be competing with Kahnawake but with many other large, well-established and well-known gaming operators, many of which operate in other jurisdictions. Bon chance.
“It is disappointing to note that Quebec fails to understand or deliberately ignores the opportunities for synergy between Loto-Quebec and Kahnawake. Loto-Quebec's online gambling operation could be hosted from Mohawk Internet Technologies. The [lottery regulator] could work with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to harmonise their regulations concerning online gaming.
“Over the past twelve years, Kahnawake’s participation in the online gaming industry has generated more employment, highly skilled training opportunities, fiscal advantages and positive global recognition than any other economic development venture in Kahnawake's history. Now that Quebec has decided to ‘legalise’ online gaming for its purposes, it has a perfect opportunity to ‘participate as partners’ with Kahnawake to advance this developing industry. Instead, Quebec has chosen to continue its implicit demonization of Kahnawake. This is truly disappointing and, unless Quebec reconsiders its position, will certainly colour the relations that Kahnawake and Quebec seek to maintain in other areas.”
