The gambling debacle that was British Columbia’s attempt at an online casino is well-known in the gambling world. It appears that Ontario hasn’t been phased, though. The Canadian province still plans to launch their own online casino. Here’s hoping they learn from British Columbia’s mistakes.

Ontario is facing a deficit of $20 billion and is eager to add revenue. Launching an online casino is seen as a logical way of making a dent in that. Unlike a brick and mortar casino, which would require huge costs in construction and payroll, an online casino has few costs, other than paying developers and a small staff to maintain the site. It is not known at this time whether they want to have the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission run the website.

British Columbia put their online casino in the hands of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, to disastrous effect. A glitch in the software caused a security breach in which players logged onto the accounts of others and had access to sensitive information. The online casino was then shut down and will not be re-launched until they are sure such a security breach can’t happen again.

Some jurisdictions opt to legalize online gambling and let existing online casinos operate in their country. In exchange, the country makes money from taxing the casino, taxing the players and charging fees to the casino to operate in their jurisdiction. British Columbia and Ontario want to make more money but cutting out the middle man and running the casino themselves. That way, all of the casino profits go to the province, rather than just a small percentage.

More information about Ontario’s casino plans will come out as the plans get closer to fruition. I hope they learned from B.C.’s mistakes, but we can only wait and see.

Tags: British Columbia Lottery Corporation, British Columbia online casino, Canada online casino, Canadian online casino, Online Casino, online gambling, online gambling Canada, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, Ontario online casino