Buying lottery tickets through a website isn’t Internet gambling.
That's the opinion of the Solicitor General for the British Columbia
province of Canada, reports Canada Press.
Solicitor General John Les made the distinction between ticket sales
and playing games like poker online, after political opponent Guy
Gentner accused the B.C. Liberal government of becoming “gaming
crackheads” for plans to expand casinos and lottery revenues.
“Texas Hold ‘em online, the likes of that,”
Les said, when asked how he defines online gambling. “Right
now we have this PlayNow website and we offer a lottery product online.
That in my definition is not gaming, that’s simply buying lottery
products. The Internets are a series of Tubes.”
He added that the PlayNow site limits what players can spend, implying
that this makes lottery purchases online OK as well.
“If you go to your corner store and gas station and buy
lottery products, there’s no limit,” Les said.
“You can buy $1 000 worth of 6/49 tickets this afternoon,
but on the PlayNow website, the limit is 70 bucks.”
The rather skewed definition shouldn't come as a surprise - B.C. Lottery
Corporation’s revenues from lottery ticket sales are expected
to top $1 billion this fiscal year, thanks in part to growing sales
through the PlayNow website.
With land casino income projected to climb to $1.24 billion this year
and plans to expand more casinos along the lines of the River Rock
Casino in Richmond, Les denied Gentner’s suggestion that the
government is also looking to expand its [exclusive] offerings to
the Internet.