Published January 29, 2024

In 2021, Loto Quebec launched Espacejeux, an expansion of their services that offers players access to online gambling through their four casino’s websites, including the Casino Lac Leamy. The expansion came amid the rise of unregulated private online gambling that the Quebec government has been grappling with for years.

Hoping to combat the rise of privately owned gambling companies, in 2015, the Quebec government proposed Bill 74. Bill 74 aimed at regulating online gambling by forcing internet service providers to block access to illegal gambling websites. The bill was polarizing and eventually landed in Quebec’s superior court, where it was ultimately rejected for violating net neutrality.

Since then, the government has taken to providing their own online gambling services through Espacejeux and has continued to expand the types of online gambling offered. There have been calls for the government to work with privately owned companies and create regulatory standards for non-governmental gambling, but the Quebec government hasn’t made any movements toward regulation.

In a press release detailing the third fiscal quarter of 2022-2023, Loto Quebec revealed casinos have seen a 60% increase in profit, amounting to $829.3 million dollars in revenue. Of that staggering amount, online gambling through casinos brings in less than a quarter of the sector’s profit. This reflects the reality Quebec lawmakers have been struggling to mitigate for nearly a decade now: the monopoly private gambling companies have on the industry.

In May of 2023 the Québec Online Gaming Coalition (QOGC) was launched. The coalition is made up of the industry leading online gambling operators and was created to address the increasing need for regulation of Quebec’s private online gambling sector. According to a survey conducted in 2023 by the QOGC, 73% of Quebec’s online players opt to gamble on privately owned gambling sites — websites that don’t have to adhere to the protections of players enforced by Loto Quebec. —

Loto Quebec imposes a limit on how much money players can deposit into their account, allowing a maximum of $500 a week. Players must also set limits on the amount of time they can access the website per day. These regulations don’t apply to the private gambling companies, increasing the risks for players to gamble irresponsibly. They also don’t have to be licensed through the government, making it difficult to create protections for players. These gaps in protection have led to calls for Quebec to establish an independent regulatory body to oversee gambling regulations in the province.

For players who recognize they have a problem and decide to they need to stop gambling all together, Loto Quebec’s protections prove inadequate as they fail to prevent players from turning to the unregulated online industry. The self-exclusion program, created to let players disallow their use of gambling services provided by Loto-Quebec for up to five years, is less of a fail-safe when players aren’t also barred from online services that operate in Quebec.

The government’s failure to recognize the need to regulate the growing online gambling industry leaves players vulnerable to forming unhealthy gambling habits, and the protections put into place by Loto Quebec have failed to adapt to the industries changes.

As the industry continues to show record growth, the need to regulate privately operated online gambling grows. If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling, you can call the Gambling Help and Referral Line at 1-800-461-0140.

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