In an apparent effort to trim down its record deficit, the provincial government is set to allow online gambling.

The province is hoping to get in on the action which sees offshore gambling sites raking in millions of dollars. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said online betting will be available by 2012 and expects the move will bring in about $100 million a year.

The government will spend the next year and a half deciding how to launch the program.

Ontario is currently dealing with a near-$20 billion shortfall.

According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Canadians shell out approximately $1 billion a year on unregulated gambling websites.

Last month British Columbia expanded its online gambling operations at PlayNow.com with new casino games and plans to launch peer-to-peer poker rooms. The move made B.C. the first jurisdiction in North America to legalize online casino games.

Shortly after the online casino games were launched in B.C., the government had to shut the site down due to security problems. Some gamblers were able to place bets with other users’ money. Some also had access to other users’ account information. The B.C. Lottery Corporation waited five days to inform the public of the problem.

And officials in the United States are preparing to get in on Internet gambling, ending a four-year ban this fall.