Online gambling in Canada has always been a grey area but never a stranger for most fans of the CFL who enjoy betting on their favorite sport. With the recent changes in the US law some are hoping Canada will follow the same steps and begin to legalize gambling entirely in the country. At least make more sense from present laws, especially when it comes to sports betting.
By 2016, it was estimated that roughly $4 billion a year has been wagered by Canadians on offshore markets vs. $500 million they spend on provincial sports lottery games like Ontario’s Pro Line, and billions more might be wagered with illegal bookies inside the country, money that goes directly to criminal gangs.
Gambling was entirely illegal half a century ago until 1969 when the new Criminal Code allowed provincial governments and the federal government to host lotteries. Then, in 1985 provinces were allowed to legalize most forms of gambling to their own discretion just as it is happening now in the USA, but the adoption of online gambling has been slow by local authorities who are very restrictive.
As of 2019, ten provinces legalized gambling in some form. Depending on the province you can find horse racetracks, bingo, sports lotteries, lotteries, casinos, slot machined and video lotteries. There are plenty of land based casinos in the country, included those hosted by tribe authorities. There are a few provinces that accept sports betting on the CFL, but if you ask any Canadian they mostly turn to offshore online casino sites for their sports betting and casino games. These offer better odds, are less costly, and more readily available for all citizens without the annoying restrictions.
The reason for this is the liberal stance the country has in regards to offshore gambling sites. In the Criminal Code it is stated that an entity is only illegal if it’s based in Canadian territory and isn’t regulated by a Canadian Province. So as long as the website is located overseas without a Canadian office or use of Canadian servers, it can legally accept Canadian players to wager on the CFL and play online slots. Popular websites like 888 online casino have been accepting Canadian players for well over 20 years without issues. These are safe and well trusted sites regulated by the UK with a perfect track record.
Online casinos legally hosted inside Canada are very rare. Only four provinces offer them; Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.
· British Columbia hosts a single website with online casino, lottery, poker, and bingo.
· Ontario’s OLHG offers an online casino and lottery only.
· Quebec has the most complete offer with an online casino, lottery, poker, bingo and sports betting.
One website each is not enough for online gamblers to rip the benefits of either blackjack or betting.
Sports betting is popular in the country with little persecution against players or offshore websites, despite the fact being more restricted by law than online casinos. The Criminal Code enforces bettors to bet on two events at a time, also known as a parlay. It is a strange law indeed, one that has kept players turning to offshore sites instead of the few local options.
“There have been no prosecutions that resulted in convictions or guilty pleas, so the offshore sports books look at Canada as a grey zone,” says lawyer Michael Lipton, a gaming law expert with Dickinson Wright in Toronto interviewed by cbc.ca on the subject.
A big reason for this is because the Criminal Code was written decades ago, with provisions in relation to gaming being drafted in the 1960’s with no update since then. The internet did not exist back then, so local players using foreign websites cannot be prosecuted by local authorities.
Even making deposits and withdrawals from a Canadian bank account to an offshore gambling site is fairly easy, fast and so far legal. Banks in Canada will determine what transactions to allow when it comes to gaming transactions based on provincial law. In the regard, third-party companies’ act as middle men, accepting money from the bettor’s bank account and making the transfer to the player’s betting account. The advent of crypto wallets has also made this process far faster and accessibly with anonymity.
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