HALIFAX — Nova Scotia won't place its bets on online gambling.

Premier Darrell Dexter announced the decision Thursday, saying government-sanctioned online gaming would not be consistent with the province's goal of trying to reduce the overall harm caused by all forms of gambling.

Dexter said the decision was made after consulting with experts in the gambling field and talking with members of the public.

His finance minister, who had been leaning in favour of online gambling, said he changed his mind after reading the latest research on the issue.

"The thing that struck me was the idea that if we participated in online gambling we would get people into gambling who otherwise wouldn't," said Graham Steele.

Steele, who is grappling with a $203-million deficit for fiscal 2010-11, said it was an easy decision to pass on any potential revenue and "do the right thing."

"Any estimate of how much revenue was simply a wild guess," said Steele. "Nobody really has any idea how much revenue was available."

Dexter was asked why he announced the position ahead of the release of a proposed gambling strategy, which he said would come forward either later this year or early next year.

"There are consultations going on through the lottery corporation and we just felt in order to clear up any ambiguity with the direction the government is going in people should know that this (online gaming) is not going to be considered," he said.

In a speech last week, Marie Mullally, chief executive officer of the Nova Scotia Gaming Corp., said access to Internet gambling will continue to grow whether the government is involved or not.

She said there are already about 2,500 Internet gambling sites and that the fastest-growing access point is the cellphone market.

Dexter said that as things stand, there is little his government can do to control websites that are operated in other jurisdictions. But he also said officials can't put their "heads in the sand" when it comes to dealing with the affects of problem gambling.

"The reality is there are online gaming sites everywhere there is a computer," he said. "We're still going to have to deal with what happens as a result of those sites."

Nova Scotia's decision follows a similar one in Newfoundland and Labrador, where Premier Danny Williams said in August that he was opposed to the introduction of online gambling in his province.

Some other provinces have gone in the opposite direction -- British Columbia opened an online casino in July, while Ontario and Quebec also intend to launch their own Internet gaming sites.

Prince Edward Island's finance minister has said his province hasn't yet decided whether it will get involved in a similar venture.