Canada: A Promising Market for Online Casino Operators
Let’s first talk laws. Canada has legalized all forms of gambling, but online gambling. Online gambling is not illegal, but it’s not legal either, thus resembling the legislation of many American states. This means that players can still bet at high-rated Canadian online casinos.
In order to understand the confusing nature of Canada’s gambling laws and the prospect of the country opening up its markets, read this article.
Legal Situation
It’s important to first explore the legal situation in Canada as it currently is. First, gambling in Canada is overall legal. You must be over the age of 18 to gamble in Alberta, Quebec, and Manitoba. However, you must be over the age of 19 to gamble in any other province.
Casinos are legal in Canada and there are many physical casinos there, which are often frequented by American tourists who want go legally gamble, but can’t do it in their own state. There is also a legal nationwide lottery.
In terms of sports betting, Canada recently surprised us by legalizing single-game sports betting in August 2021. Provinces now have the chance to regulate their own sports betting markets. This would greatly benefit the Canadian treasury as it’s estimated that players spend up to $10 billion annually on sports betting, but this money goes towards offshore websites or illegal websites.
Now, let us take a look at the online gambling situation. Online gambling is not strictly forbidden by Canada, which puts it in the gray area. What this means to players is that they won’t be prosecuted if they are found to be gambling at offshore casinos, which they tend to do.
Previously, we compared the legal situation in Canada to that of the US, but there’s one major difference in their respective legislations. While some American states have neither banned nor legalized online gambling, a federal act of 2006 (The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement) made it illegal for all Americans to gamble at offshore online casinos. There’s no such act in Canada, which is why foreign sites gladly accept Canadian players.
There is also a unique advantage for Canadian players to gamble online right now – their winnings from offshore online casinos are not taxable. If Canada decides to legalize and regulate online gambling, this would change, so it seems like Canadians are more likely to oppose such measures rather than welcome them.
Future of Online Gambling in Canada
The Canadian government can only benefit from the legalization of online casinos. By imposing taxes on players’ winnings, which is not currently feasible, they can make millions. Add this to the taxation of future online casinos based in Canada, and you can see how the country could enrich itself overnight.
Canada’s southern neighbor is already reaping the benefits of legalization. Even more conservative states such as Indiana have begun the process of full legalization, which brought the state millions in new tax revenue.
According to some reports, Canadian players spend approximately $4 billion every year at offshore online casinos. Various Canadian legislators had a wake-up call when they found out how much money their citizens spent at offshore betting sites, which made them legalize online sports betting earlier this year.
We believe the same thing would eventually happen with online casinos as well. Curiously, some offshore online operators have even reached out to Canadian organizations and politicians with the plea to regulate them and tax them. Now that’s something you don’t usually hear from a company!
Online operators have shown readiness to adapt to a future Canadian online market, so we suspect that some of them have already laid plans for when that happens. Investors can also reap on the benefits, seeing the interest of Canadian players towards gambling. A new market is an exciting thing for everyone involved.
We can’t predict how long it would take for Canadian legislators to draft an online gambling bill, vote on it, and then implement it, but we can tell you that we expect it to happen soon enough, especially considering the havoc wrecked on the economy by the coronavirus.
Offshore Online Casinos
While we await the Canadian government to address the situation with online gambling, let’s talk a little bit more about offshore casinos that welcome Canadian players. As previously said, many foreign online casinos accept Canadian players, because there are no legal repercussions to either side.
However, not all casinos that Canadians can find online are legitimate. We advise our Canadian readers to be extra-cautious when they gamble online, because the government might not be able to retrieve losses sustained at illegal casinos. There have been many such cases where players were cheated out of their winnings, but were not able to receive the help they needed.
Here are some tips for finding a reputable online operator:
- Licenses – First and foremost, check any and all licenses an online casino holds. The casino must be licensed by at least one state gaming authority such as the UK Gambling Commission. Usually, bigger online casinos hold licenses in a few different countries. To check that, scroll down to the end of the page and look at the icons there. You should be able to click on them and be sent to the website of the regulator.
- Website Encryption – The online casino should be safe to visit. There should be a safety certificate shown on the website. If your browser or anti-virus software signals a threat, better believe them.
- Secure Payment Options – There should be a selection of various safe payment options.
- Responsible Gambling – The casino should have a dedicated page for the prevention of gambling addiction and/or link to an organization dealing with this problem.
- Customer Support – A casino is supposed to have reliable customer support if any issues arise.
- Customer Reviews – Lastly, we suggest you read reviews as you can expect players to reveal their bad experiences with an online casino.
