Public health officials across Quebec asked the province Thursday to step back from its plan for online gambling.

Loto-Québec will launch an online gambling site in September, a move that is expected to bring in more than $50 million in revenue by 2013, the lottery corporation has said.

The corporation also said earlier this month that the site would counteract the 2,000 gambling sites already online, most of which are illegal and unregulated by the province.

Health officials, however, said a severe health risk comes with gambling, especially gambling on the internet. And it is much easier for someone to become addicted to gambling if they play online, said Dr. Richard Lessard, Montreal's public health director.

The government needs to do more research before getting into online gaming, he said.

"It's too soon to go online," Lessard said. "We think there should be a moratorium on the implementation of online gambling, and during that one year or more period, we think there should be an expert committee to analyze the impact on health in particular."

The negative impact that gambling has on health far outweighs the financial windfall for the province, he said.