Dalton McGuinty's relationship with vice just got more complicated.
Under Mr. McGuinty's government, Ontarians are not allowed to attend mixed martial arts events. If they're under 22 years old, they can't have a trace of alcohol in their system before getting behind the wheel. When they enter convenience stores, they can rest assured cigarettes will be kept well out of their sight.
But when they're in the comfort of their own homes, they're more than welcome to gamble their money away. In fact, the government will soon actively encourage them to do so.
From a business perspective, the decision to get into the online gambling business - announced Tuesday by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Ontario Lottery and Gaming chair Paul Godfrey - makes good sense. If OLG is to retain its value as a revenue generator, and perhaps an asset for the government to eventually sell off, it has to be competitive. With Ontarians spending an estimated $400-million a year playing casino games in front of their computers, that likely means keeping some of that money in the province.
Politically, too, there was some upside to the announcement. Mr. McGuinty's Liberals needed to regain control of the agenda after spending most of the summer on the defensive, and gambling is a talker. The timing, if cynical, was certainly convenient - serving to distract from Ombudsman André Marin's criticisms of the province's Local Health Integration Networks the same day.
But as part of the broader picture, an online casino is at odds with Mr. McGuinty's modus operandi - one that usually sees Premier Dad implying it's his obligation to guard the well-being of Ontarians when they're unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
Some Liberals argue that, however counterintuitive, state-sanctioned online gambling is in keeping with that mentality. Better people should lay down their cash with a socially responsible public agency than with indifferent offshore companies.
At best, though, it might be a wash in terms of social impact. By the time its site launches in 2012, OLG will come up with an ambitious and well-meaning security system to restrict problem gamblers. But so long as the government is competing with less responsible sites, rather than somehow cracking down on them, there will always be another option for those customers.
That points to a darker scenario - one Mr. Duncan couldn't really explain how the government will prevent.
Assuming Ontario can avoid a fiasco like the one in British Columbia, where the new online casino had to go offline because of privacy breaches, it will lend legitimacy to an industry that until now has been murky. That will lead Ontarians who've shied away from online gambling to give it a shot. If some wind up hooked, and take their business elsewhere after getting booted from OLG's site, the government will have inadvertently lured vulnerable people to what it refers to as "the grey market."
"This is not a new frontier," Mr. Godfrey noted. He's right; other jurisdictions, including several other provinces, have moved in the same direction on online gambling. But they're not run by governments that have moved in the other direction on so many other fronts.
Liberal strategists have previously acknowledged that, for fear of backlash, they want to shy away from too much more nannyism. If they were worried about getting pigeonholed, they can rest a little easier now.
Adam Radwanski