Manitoba Lottery Website Reports Disappointing Results

Even though the number of registered users has increased, Manitoba online gambling site profits are low.

A year after Manitoba launched its gambling website, financial reports are showing disappointingly low profits. The province is blaming poor results on competition from foreign websites, as Canadian gambling laws don’t ban internationally-licensed operators.

While internet betting in Canada is only provided through government-run operators, players are free to use any online casino they prefer. The Manitoba website went live on January 23, 2013 and generated a revenue of $1.8 million during the first six months. The operator initially estimated a net return to the province of $1.5 million, but only reached $300,000.

High expectations, low results

Manitoba officials were very optimistic when the local gambling website was launched, projecting a yearly income of $17 million by 2018, but now expectations will need to be scaled back.

According to lottery official Andrea Kowal, the site lost some of its appeal due to lottery ticket sales and delays in launching online bingo games. Furthermore, the company believes the website’s poor performance has a lot to do with competition from foreign operators. Other Canadian provinces have experienced the same problem.

However, some progress has been made during the last six months, as the number of registered customers has more than doubled, increasing from 4,000 to 9,000.