Are Online Casinos Legal in Canada?
Finding online casinos in Canada can be a little hard because internet gambling is a growing thing, which many aren’t sure if it’s legit. Although, the numbers of the participants in these casinos is constantly rising.
To explain further, under Canadian law gambling is under provisional jurisdiction, The CBC reports. Consequently, online casinos in Canada can operate if a provincial government allows it.
However, the casino can only legally take bets from people in that province and should avoid accepting users from different regions. That’s why, there are amazing review websites to give you as much information as possible regarding the different casinos, regulations and every related.
How Canada Regulates Online Gambling
Thus some provinces like Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec offer online gambling. Yet it can be illegal for you to play on an online casino based in another province.
Ontario, for example, has a single legal online gaming site the provincial government operates, CalinAyre.com reveals. The provincial government plans to allow private online casinos in Ontario. Unfortunately, the plans for private online casinos in Ontario are still on the drawing board.
Moreover, Quebec has similar plans to allow online casinos, CalvinAyre.com reveals. Yet, Quebec’s government has allowed no casinos.
Online Casinos are in a Grey Area in Canada
Online gambling is a legal gray area in Canada because federal law enforcement; the RCMP, usually ignores online wagers, the CBC notes. To clarify, the RCMP’s resources are finite so the Mounties concentrate on more serious threats like terrorism, gangsters, and drugs.
In addition, lawyers believe allowing online casinos will require Parliament to revise part of Canada’s Criminal Code. Therefore, parliamentary governments are lobbying the national government to amend the Criminal Code to allow more digital gambling.
Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli asked Finance Minister Bill Morneau for “an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada that would legalize single event sports wagering in Canada,” in March 2019, The Toronto Sun reports. If parliament approves that amendment private casinos take sports bets in Ontario.
Fedeli wants legal private sports betting in Ontario so the province can collect taxes on it. In particular, Fedeli thinks Ontario residents are betting at American websites costing the province money.
“Recent estimates indicate illegal single event sports betting generates $110 million (CDN) per year in revenue, in Ontario alone,” Fedeli claims in a letter to Morneau. Fedeli also claims that major sports leagues including the NHL and the CFL “now support Criminal Code amendments to allow single sports wagering in Canada, particularly in light of the recent legalization in the U.S.”
Under these circumstances it is only a matter of time before online casinos in Canada could be legal in every province.