Canadian Lottery Group to Open Regional Online Poker Room

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation, aka Loto Atlantique, plans to get into the poker business — bringing a new regional dynamic into play as it opens new online poker tables to citizens of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador and Prince Edward Islands. They already offer online lottery tickets, online bingo, sports betting, competitive crossword puzzles (for money), and online mini-golf. While we may want to balk at newcomers trying to get in on the international action with their own localized version of it, ALC could be an interesting group to watch. They\’ve already got mobile platforms in play, partnerships with brick and mortar casinos, and have some quite different sorts of marketing ideas to the table. For example, currently spreading the viral word of ALC\’s games is a money contest catering to those with social media prowess to get your dog featured on a lottery ticket.Why do I think that no matter what does or doesn\’t pass legislatively around the world in the next few years that online poker will look very different in the not-too-distant future? Kinda shocked that we haven\’t yet seen the Spuds McKenzie of Poker.

RELATED: This comes in the wake of Quebec planning on its own provincial online poker set-up — an attempt to \”cannibalize illegal gambling sites\” — before (temporarily?) pulling the plug just last week at the frantic request of health officials fearing major addiction problems for certain Canadian hosers.