The Quebec government has formed a five-person committee to oversee and study the launch of Loto Quebec's on-line gambling site.
Starting in the fall, Loto Quebec will begin offering on-line poker and will then branch out into other forms of on-line gambling, including sports betting.
Critics had hoped the study would happen before Loto Quebec got into on-line gambling, but the government says any delay would play into the hands of so-called illegal sites.
Critics think easy access to gambling, through the internet, can only lead to more problem or compulsive gamblers.
Committee chair Louise Nadeau says research does not seem to demonstrate such a link.
"It's not because there's an increase of prevalence, because there's more accessibility that there are more pathological gamblers," says Nadeau
"It is true that those who are playing on line have a higher probability of being at-risk gamblers or pathological gamblers but those numbers are very, very small," she adds.
A 2002 study indicated the level of pathological gamblers is less than one per cent and Nadeau says those who are prone to becoming compulsive gamblers are also prone to other addictions.
Nadeau and her colleagues have three years to conduct their study.
However, the government isn't bound to accept the findings of the researchers.
Regardless, Nadeau promises the public will be aware of the conclusions through the report's publication and the committee's contact with the media.
Critics of the government's plan say Quebec should have conducted the study first and delayed the launch of on-line gambling.
But the finance minister says that would just play into the hands of illegal on-line gambling sites - illegal because they are not run by Quebec.
"When it's a state monopoly that acts in gaming, citizens are better protected than when it's private corporations," says Minister Raymond Bachand.
Loto Quebec is projecting tens of millions of dollars to be generated by on-line gambling but nothing like the money the casinos bring in.
"In two to three years, when our offer is completed, we expect to get something around $70 million in revenues and something around $50 million in profit," says Loto Quebec's Alain Cousineau.
