Vancouver Sun editorial says regulate online gaming

[The Buzz]

An editorial ran in The Vancouver Sun today that dealt with online gaming regulation. The author of the piece, David Baines, freely admits that he is "no fan of online gambling," he believes that the practice shouldn't be banished, but regulated.

Every year, foreign online gambling companies suck millions of dollars out of the Canadian economy on a tax-free basis. And since they are not regulated in Canada, we have no way of knowing whether the games are rigged, or whether underage people are being allowed to play, or whether they are being used for illicit purposes such as money laundering. Which brings me to the B.C. Lottery Corp.'s recently announced expansion into online gambling, which has raised such a fuss in the media. As mentioned, the genie is already out of the bottle. There is no point in trying to shove it back in. On the contrary, there is much to be said for shifting gamblers from unregulated to regulated gambling websites, where games and payouts are monitored, taxes are collected (in the case of private companies), and proceeds remitted to the public treasury (in the case of government-run sites).

Also, at the end of the piece, Buzzy favorite Rebecca Liggero gets a shout-out. Liggero is now "Bodog Becky" and works for BodogBrand.com and CalvinAyre.com.

[thepokerkeep]

Canadian authorities should do what they can to bring this unregulated activity under control. It's difficult, if not impossible, to banish it, so we may as well licence it. It certainly doesn't make sense to chase away a legitimate, highly regulated operator like the B.C. Lottery Corp. and essentially hand market share to a rogue operator like Bodog.

This is hilarious!!

Did he do any research before writing this article?

There are hundreds of poker/casino/sportsbooks taking bets from Canadian consumers, yet he singles out Bodog. What makes him think Bodog is a bigger threat than any of the others?

[Anthony]

Yea I got a kick out of that, "Rouge operator". He has no idea what a rouge operator is.

[ck8795]

This is hilarious!!

Did he do any research before writing this article?

There are hundreds of poker/casino/sportsbooks taking bets from Canadian consumers, yet he singles out Bodog. What makes him think Bodog is a bigger threat than any of the others?

No he doesn't and whats really really sad is that I sent him links 6 mths ago when he published his half truth story on Mat Sundin and Pokerstars. Links to PPA, Playwinningpoker's article on the UIGEA, iMega, Pokernewsdaily, poker news etc. He told me he belives it should be regulated and taxed but because of the UIGEA its illegal to gamble online in canada and the US or so he thought. Obviously he didnt bother reading the pages I sent him and instead took snippets from G911 for a second time.

The only copy I can find now is the print version and I had to use google's cache for it

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:...&hl=en&ct=clnk