Online casinos sanctioned by Nova Scotia could launch this spring, according to CBC. This comes barely a month after the province signed the legal paperwork to enable the offering of online casino-style games within its borders.

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation is reportedly looking forward to launching online casinos in the region. Last August, it also quietly launched an online casino in New Brunswick. The website provides both slots and card games with limits of $500 per hand in blackjack and $100 per bet for slots.

Not everyone is pleased with the generous gambling limits. In fact, anti-gambling advocates have already begun making efforts to pressure the ALC to lower these limits.

A Decade in the Making

The ALC has been attempting to legalize online casinos in the Maritime provinces since 2010. At the time, British Columbia had just expanded legal online gambling to slots and card games. Manitoba, Quebec, and Ontario would later make similar laws.

But an attempt to legalize online casinos in Prince Edward Island was shut down. The then finance minister of P.E.I., Wes Sheridan, had agreed to permit online casinos based on guidelines proposed by the ALC. But he admitted to having had a "change of heart" at the last minute.

Nova Scotia also turned down a bill to legalize online casinos in the same year (2010). And like Prince Edward, the decision was made to protect the citizens of the province.

Taking Back $100M+ in Revenues from Offshore Casinos

In 2010, Prince Edward's Wes Sheridan rejected the idea of permitting online casinos although he admitted they generated over $50 million in revenue to offshore casinos. The figure has since risen to $100 million according to ALC.

Although the Commission is yet to explain how it calculated this figure, many experts believe it's not far from reality. Online gambling is allowed in Canada and interestingly, offshore casinos aren't prohibited from providing their services to Canucks.

The result: hundreds of online casinos based in Malta, London, Isle of Man, and Curacao all target gamblers living in Canada. It's free to create an account on all of these websites. What's more, you can play slots or card games through mobile devices.

The Future is Online

Although the Lottery Commission is working hard to legalize online casinos throughout the Maritimes, it's often admitted to experiencing a major challenge. Many of its companies prefer to gamble at land-based gambling spots.

According to CBC Canada, only over 3% of ALC's lottery sales in 2019 came from online sales. That's a small percentage for an agency pushing hard for online gambling legalization. Still, it's hopeful things will get better in the near future.

2020 could have been a tipping point for gamblers in the Maritimes switching from physical to online gambling. According to ALC's spokesperson Greg Weston, registration for the agency's website increased by five times after the pandemic hit, a trend he hopes continues in the long haul.