Online Poker in Canada Legal?
Poker online in Canada has been under seige lately. Signs of a potential wide scale ban like we saw in the USA could be a strong possibility.
The first inclination to this happening was with Neteller. In March of 2007 Neteller, the biggest gambling deposit provider, abruptly stopped allowing Canadians to use their services. This was only a few months after they halted US gambling based transactions and seized millions of dollars in US funds.
Poker Sites and Canada
Some poker sites have not allowed Canadians for years. One of those is Bodog. Casinos recently added to that ban list was Golden Palace and English Harbour. Party Poker and the major brands are still accepting players from Canada.
If Canada issues a large scale ban like the United States “Unlawful Internet Gambling Act” we will likely see almost all publicly traded companies close down to our fellow Canadians. Yes this means Party Poker, Titan Poker, Pacific Poker and other big name brands.
Canada Party Poker players received a jolt when Party Poker abruptly stopped the use of Neteller for gamblers from Canada. Party Poker knew of the planned exodus of Neteller and gave Canadians a “Fair Warning” that there might be problems with Neteller and Canada. This saved many Canadians from having excessive withdraw times while Neteller planned a press release to halt gambling uses in Canada with their company.
Currently most of the laws that relate to gambling in Canada refer to “Brick and Mortar” casinos but lawyers say the same terms can apply to online gaming. One hope for Canadian poker players is that the legislation talks about illegal games being that of “pure chance” and poker is proven to be part skill and part luck.
Deposit Options for Canadians
Now this is where things get confusing. There are a decent amount of ewallets that do business with Canadian gambling sites, but they all vary. For example one poker site might accept ePassporte and another poker site won’t. This is why we have devoted an entire page to track Canada poker deposit information as it constantly changes.
Online Operators in Jeopardy?
It is still uncertain whether online gambling operators are in jeopardy. We have seen many of the big guns in the gaming industry move to more stable e-gambling accepted countries just in case.
There has been a case where one individual was forced to forfeit over $4million dollars because his servers were located in Vancouver Canada. But, no one has yet to be prosecuted for advertising gaming activities and it doesn’t seem to be of high importance at this time.
Now…..only time will tell if Canada follows the footsteps of the US.
Article by Roger
Disclaimer: This article is not a legal interpretation of laws. Please check for accuracies and new laws which may have occured after the writing of this article.
