Quebec Government May Force ISPs To Block Gambling Websites

New submitter ottawan- writes: In order to drive more customers to their own online gambling website, the Quebec government and Loto-Quebec (the provincial organization in charge of gaming and lotteries) are thinking about forcing the province's ISPs to block all other online gambling websites. The list of websites to be blocked will be maintained by Loto-Quebec, and the government believes that the blocking will increase government revenue by up to $27 million (CAD) per year.

Comments

How about driving traffic the old fashioned way?

[h33t l4x0r]

By having a product that people want to use.

Re:It's the law here...

[ArcadeMan]

Which is why 99.99% of online giveaways, even if they are based in Canada, exclude Québec.

Tell me about it. I don't even check the requirements for any giveaways anymore, because they always end with "Except in the province of Québec".

Let me say it in french so it's pretty clear:
Fuck you, Loto-Québec.

Re:Proxy Servers

[encyclo]

Sure, that's a workaround, but it doesn't solve the real problem - because the problem is not connecting to blocked sites (I have absolutely no interest in online gambling). The real problem is censorship.

So we in Quebec must fight this proposal - not because it has anything to do with gambling, but because it restricts our freedom.

Re:Crooked politicians.

[PopeRatzo]

Nice to see that American politicians are not the only crooks with too much power. Now what do we do about it?

When US politicians try to ban online gambling, it's not to drive business to government gambling sites, but rather to drive business to Sheldon Adelson. I guess they figure if you're going to be corrupt, you might as well be corrupt for someone who pays better than the government.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

Re:Crooked politicians.

[houghi]

Educate people that gambling is bad.