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Manitoba is officially in the online gambling game, but the leader of the Opposition says the province has no business being there.
The province?s first foray into online gaming kicked off Wednesday as PlayNow.com was launched, a partnership with British Columbia that Manitoba?s NDP government touts as a safe alternative to other websites.
?This is a responsible, safe site,? Steve Ashton, the minister responsible for lotteries, said. ?They know where the money is going, they know who?s behind it. ... a lot of these other sites you might describe them as gray market or black market sites.?
More details also emerged on the new gaming facility that will open in the spring across from MTS Centre at cityplace and will feature 140 slot machines as well as gaming tables. The centre will be owned by True North Sports and Entertainment, which owns the NHL?s Winnipeg Jets.
Ashton said this news is not new, adding it was announced when the Jets returned in 2011.
?The bottom line here is we have the MTS Centre and the Jets, and quite frankly to have 140 gaming machines and 5,000-foot gaming centre downtown was very clearly part of the business plan right from Day 1,? said Ashton, who projected the facility?s revenue at around $4 million. ?We?re sticking to our commitment.?
Tory leader Brian Pallister has issues with what he sees as the NDP?s reliance on gambling as a revenue stream.
?I think all Manitobans should be concerned about the increasing reliance on gambling revenues by the provincial NDP government,? he said. ?In Vegas they say the house always wins, but for the NDP house to win on gambling revenue, it means some Manitoban is losing. A lot of Manitobans are experiencing, directly and indirectly, the effects of gambling addictions and excess spending ... so I?m naturally concerned about that when I see any government increasingly rely on gambling revenues.?
Meanwhile, Premier Greg Selinger told a local radio station Wednesday that Investors Group Field, the home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, ?may have some VLTs in the facility.?
Darren Cameron, the Blue Bombers director of communications, however, shot that down.
?I can confirm that not only will there be no VLTs in the new stadium, but we don?t in fact have a restaurant to support this and therefore, no venue for them,? Cameron said in an email response. ?More importantly, VLTs were never a part of our game-plan so there won?t be any in the new facility.
david.larkins@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @LarkinsWSun
Source: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/01/23/no-vlts-in-new-stadium-bombers
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