In August 2021, the Canadian government announced that it had taken the decision reform the laws surrounding online gambling in the country. The gambling legislation in Canada had been murky at best up until that point, and remains just as murky in most provinces and territories. One key tenet of the legislative reform, was putting the law making power in the hands of provincial governments, a tactic that sounds somewhat identical to the approach taken in the US. Is this for the best, or is Canada a different beast altogether?
Ontario’s approach to legal online gambling
Ontario’s goal has been clear, to develop a rich, and diverse iGaming market, that is safe, and ensures users are well protected from potentially harmful operators, and their practices. So far, the province has provided online sportsbooks, casino, and poker sites from every corner of the globe to operate in the province.
Ontario has also laid down the law, by removing the ability of operators, and their affiliates, to advertise any inducements in the province. In this case, an inducement is defined as any evidence of a reward for the completion of an action, so welcome bonuses, promotional offers, and even better priced odds are not to be advertised outside the operator websites themselves.
What have other provinces done?
Aside from this implementation, all of Canada’s other provinces and territories have been quite inactive, and are still allowing grey market bookmakers to continue their business in the province.
As it stands, Saskatchewan has been the only other province to announce a new implementation, which involves the province providing one sole iGaming product to it’s users, and no more. Essentially, this is the opposite approach to the one taken by Ontario.
As for the rest of the provinces and territories in Canada, only time will tell as to which direction they will take.
What have the early results shown us?
There is no doubting that the early results for Ontario show us that their approach has paid off. Their quarter on quarter growth is sitting fat and pretty at 60%, with many online gamblers in the province expressing satisfaction at the direction the province has taken.
Whether the same will be true for Saskatchewan’s approach will be appreciated like Ontario’s has been remains to be seen. Their approach is somewhat risky, as is any endeavour that revolves around putting all your eggs into one basket. As more and more provinces develop their own frameworks, more data will be available to view if Canada’s provinces have done the best job in this new landscape.
