Online Casino Offers Wagers 40 Times Higher than Physical Games

A discrepancy between physical video lottery terminals and online casino maximum limits is nothing outside of law, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation claims, justifying limits of up to CA$100 per spin on slots and CA$500 per hand of blackjack in its online casino available for New Brunswick only.

Nothing Wrong With Huge Online Stakes

According to the corporation spokesperson Molly Cormier regulations for online casino games are separate from regulations referring to video lottery terminals, and online games in New Brunswick have gaming rules similar to land-based casinos in the Canadian province.

“The products and standards are also consistent with other regulated online platforms operated by lotteries across Canada.” 

Molly Cormier, Spokesperson, Atlantic Lottery Corporation

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has a history of seeking permission to offer online casino games from all 4 Atlantic Canadian governments since 2016, and finally its plan got approved for New Brunswick in August 2018, followed by the corporation’s online casino up and running 2 years later.

Currently, around 3 dozens of slot machines at the corporation’s online casino where maximum stake ranges from CA$40 to CA$80 for the White Orchid slot game and even CA$100 per spin for the Spartacus, Gladiator of Rome, are exclusively offered to New Brunswick residents.

On the other side, physical video lottery terminals of the corporation are being capped at CA$2.5 per spin, yet the casino operator argues that these limits do not extend to the online gaming space.

The situation gets even more complicated considering the corporation’s online table games, where players can wager from CA$250 per hand of baccarat to CA$500 per hand of blackjack.

In terms of payouts, a number of games in the corporation’s online casino exceed the maximum payback for players, which in New Brunswick for video lottery terminals is set to 96%.

Small Stakes Is Responsible Gambling

The ambiguous approach adopted by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation is also on display on a part of its website in which it promotes the benefits of small betting limits, by listing the small wagers allowed on its physical video lottery terminals across all 4 Atlantic provinces it has land-based operations as a measure to instill responsible play.  No such text on the corporation’s virtual casino website exists.

According to documents obtained by the media reporting the stake discrepancy, the corporation has been very consistent in its efforts to convince its 4 Atlantic provincial government owners that a lot of money people are spending at online websites offshore could be kept in house via an online casino.

According to the corporation’s projections, an online casino would deliver CA$122 million in net revenue for 7 years and it only needs one of the larger provinces to approve the launch.