NWT MLAs have been told creating a regulated market for online gambling could bring more revenue to the territory.
Independent consultant Amee Barber, a former employee at Vancouver-based firm GeoComply, presented to a committee of MLAs last week about interactive gaming.
According to Barber, while online gambling has been a thing for a quarter of a century, legislation has been slower to catch up.
She feels legislation covering online gambling in the NWT would come with benefits like more tax revenue, a way to curb illegal gambling to an extent, and even – she argued – an increase in tourism.
“Greater player protections and harm reduction measures are key components of a regulated system,” Barber told MLAs. Without regulation, she said, players have “no legal recourse.”
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Interactive casinos, sports betting and lotteries all come under the definition of interactive gaming. Barber said Ontario became the first province in Canada to launch a regulated market two years ago.
iGaming Ontario now works with the provincial government and the province’s alcohol and gaming commission to protect people who use the services of private online gaming operators.
Between July and September of this year, Ontario’s iGaming market generated $738 million in revenue – a 35-percent increase compared to the same period last year, Barber said. The province has 51 licensed operators offering 83 websites.
Barber said Ontario has since recorded a 15-percent boost in gaming-related tourism.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
In Alberta, the launch of a similarly regulated interactive gaming market has been delayed to allow more input from people involved. The province is expected to follow Ontario’s model.
“If we were to apply the Ontario model directly to the Northwest Territories, obviously there’s a significantly smaller population, but there is a potential for high tax revenue,” Barber said.
She said there are ways to create “inclusion and exclusion zones” within communities to restrict access to online gaming using geolocation technology (of which GeoComply is one of many providers).
Barber said an opportunity also exists for the territory to make the industry accessible to tourists and visitors while restricting locals. She said Singapore, for example, has restrictions in place for residents who wish to participate in online gaming.
‘Normalization’ concern
Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart brought a representative of GeoComply to a meeting with communities minister Vince McKay in October.
“Opening the market to legal online sports betting and igaming could offer substantial benefits to the NWT, including increased tax revenue and consumer protections,” Testart told Cabin Radio at the time.
“By directing players to regulated platforms, the Northwest Territories can mitigate risks associated with unregulated sites, which offer no safeguards for consumers or contributions to public funds.”
At last week’s committee meeting, Testart asked Barber about tools that can be used to limit the harms caused by gaming.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Barber replied that Ontario has introduced a self-exclusion program as a requirement for being licensed, where an individual who wants to remove themselves from one gaming platform will automatically be removed across all operators.
“There’s greater oversight and ability to use different analytics, as well, to measure for indications of problem gambling. There’s also the ability for individuals to set deposit limits, but again, it’s about education,” she said.
“If there is an indication of problem gambling, there is often an opportunity to educate or for the individual to put limits on themselves, whereas in the unregulated market, there really is nothing similar.”
To reduce the burden of formulating regulations, Barber said the territory could try to collaborate with Ontario.
“The operators that are already licensed there could then work with geolocation providers to allow for access from within the Northwest Territories,” she explained.
Robert Hawkins, MLA for Yellowknife Centre, asked about the downsides of regulating online gaming. Barber said the most common concerns come from people who are concerned that online platforms are designed to be addictive.
“There’s concerns that the ads are leading to normalization or a higher incidence of gaming. Again, this falls in line with most trends towards digital play and online gaming altogether with younger demographics,” she said.
“There’s two sides to everything, but I think most of the concerns or criticisms of online gaming can be addressed through a regulated [market] more so than they can in unregulated market.”
Ollie Williams contributed reporting.
