The committees mandate is to study the effects of online gambling, as the province’s gaming agency prepares to launch its own site in September 2010.

“We have authorised Loto-Québec to develop online games but we are going to ensure that everything is done to maintain … the fight against gambling addiction,” provincial Finance Minister Raymond Bachand said at a news conference Friday.

The Finance Minister said the committee “…will have total freedom in its methodologies, its opinions and report, which will be made public.”

Bachand added that the committee is charged with monitoring the evolution of the site and the games it offers, and is expected to submit a written report to the minister within three years on the understanding that the government is not obliged to follow its recommendations.

Professors from several Quebec universities, as well as the director of a centre specialising in alcohol and gambling addiction, and a policing expert from Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security will form the committees membership.

University of Montreal psychology professor Louise Nadeau will chair the committee.

Officials estimate the total gaming revenue in Quebec is currently Cdn$50 million a year, and will jump to four times that amount in the next five years.

Loto-Québec will be competing in that market, and has ambitions to claim 40 percent of the total gaming revenues in the province.

Police spokesmen said this week that the syndicate had taken in 7 billion yuan (GBP 679.9 million) during the World Cup alone, and that its influence and activities extended across southern China and Hong Kong.

74 peole involved in the syndicate have so far been arrested in an enforcement initiative dubbed Operation Copperflame.

During several major police actions betting records and equipment associated with online gambling had been seized, spokesmen disclosed. Investigations turned up over 400 different bank accounts used to process the financial aspects of the betting.

“Police are committed to combating illegal bookmaking activities through intelligence-led operations and liaison with neighbouring enforcement agencies during the World Cup tournament,” a police statement proclaimed.

The Hong Kong busts are dwarfed by earlier anti-online gambling actions mounted by the mainland China police in which a secretive internet betting network headed by a mysterious character known as Dark Brother was smashed. In that operation bets of 100 billion yuan were uncovered.

Asian police forces in several countries have since early June maintained an unrelenting pressure in their efforts to deter gambling on the football World Cup, which concludes in South Africa this weekend.