Online casino gambling ruled out for P.E.I.

Online gambling on Prince Edward Island will not be expanded, the province's finance minister says.

Wes Sheridan had originally been in favour of a proposal by Atlantic Lottery to bring casino-type games to the government agency's website.

But he says he's had a change of heart.

"Right from the outset this has been all about player protection on Prince Edward Island," he said. "And even though we have a very strong working relationship with Atlantic Lottery, we don't feel that the online site that they would offer is the right solution for Prince Edward Island at this time."

Instead, Sheridan said, the province has to figure out a way to regulate online sites where Islanders are currently playing.

He said these unregulated sites take about $50 million out of the region on an annual basis.

Atlantic Lottery already offers PlaySphere, a website that allows people to wager on some online games, but not multi-player poker, blackjack and other casino-like games.

British Columbia launched its online gambling site in July, and Quebec and Ontario arelaunching their own sitesas well. In Nova Scotia, Premier Darrell Dexterrejected the idea of online gambling last week.