A little Britney with your bingo? A proposal to provide free music downloads to online gamblers has angered critics, who call the move a ploy to lure computer-savvy young people to the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar industry.
B.C.'s lottery corporation is proposing that music downloads be made available to some online gamblers, a suggestion some assert is an obvious bid to target young people, whose enthusiasm for online betting has dramatically increased in the past decade.
“It's an underhanded way to expand gambling,” said NDP critic Harry Lali, 55. “Who downloads music? Young people. I don't know too many adults who download music. People my age go to the store and buy CDs.”
The popularity of online gambling has exploded in recent years. Globally, it's estimated that about 23 million people use the Internet to gamble, spending between $7-billion and $10-billion a year, according to a report prepared by the B.C. Centre for Social Responsibility, a research group.
A 2005 study in Ontario showed that 60 per cent of the province's residents gambled online. (That study included the online purchase of lottery tickets.)
And a 2007 study showed that online gambling is popular among people aged 19-24, rising to 5.5 per cent in 2005 from 1.4 per cent in 2001.
“One of the areas where it is growing the fastest appears to be among college and university students, probably just because of their familiarity of computers,” said Amanda McCormick, who wrote the report on online gambling for the B.C. Centre for Social Responsibility.
Online gambling in British Columbia is confined to interactive versions of popular lottery tickets. Card games such as poker aren't legal in Canada, although players can log on to offshore sites.
Ms. McCormick said the music proposal seemed aimed at young adults, which is troubling, even though this group is of legal age.
“It does sound like it would be something that would attract the college and university-aged student,” Ms. McCormick said. “They are the ones who are probably more likely to be online and be familiar using these downloading programs. So I would think it would definitely encourage those people to visit the site.”
Her report concluded that legalizing some online gambling benefits the community with a piece of the growing revenue.
But online gambling involves more risks to the gambler. It's more isolating and it's easier to spend longer periods of time on Internet sites.
Online gambling is regulated in Canada by provincial and territorial governments. In British Columbia, players who log on to the PlayNow.com website must be 19 and there is a $120-a-week spending limit.
BCLC spokesman Trevor Miller said the lottery corporation isn't trying to lure underage players, noting the music would be available to only those who already have PlayNow accounts.
“It's a bit of a much ado about nothing,” Mr. Miller said Thursday. “We think the idea of having music downloads offers our players another form of excitement. Music is a form of entertainment, as is gaming. We think they kind of go hand in hand. It's something that will give our players a little more excitement to their online experience.”
Revenues from BCLC's PlayNow.com site were $18.7-million in 2007-08, which accounted for about 2 per cent of the lottery corporation's $958.2-million in lottery sales, or 0.7 per cent of the corporation's $2.5-billion overall revenues.
