And in Canada, our good friends there are also embracing the online poker legalization. The province of Alberta is apparently close to legalizing internet gaming. Last month, British Columbia became the first province or state in North America to provide a government-sanctioned online poker casino. And earlier this week, Ontario suggested it, too, was looking at jumping into cyberspace betting by 2012. Many of the current online gambling sites like Everest Poker are operated by offshore companies, meaning that Canadians who use them are sending their money to foreign countries. Ontario estimates it is losing out on about $400 million a year in this way, while B.C. projects its revenue loss at $100 million. Similar estimates are not available for Alberta. But considering Albertans are the biggest per-capita gamblers in the country, online betting may be a lucrative source of money for a provincial government that has found itself unusually cash-strapped in recent years. The last time the subject made headlines in Alberta was in 2007, when the Alexander First Indian tribe near Edmonton planned to offer licenses for companies to set up online poker, casino or sports-betting operations in a data center on its reserveonly in the country of Canada.