Players very frequently have questions about whether their favorite types of online betting are legal or not, and we have answers.
If you want a guaranteed recipe to confusion, frustration and feeling like you don't know which way is up, then all you have to do is try to figure out online gambling law on a global level. Each country has their own rules, guidelines to regulation and laws for players and businesses that it's tricky at best to try to figure out where to even begin. For Canada, however, you're in luck.
Deceptively Simple
Online gambling laws in Canada are deceptively simple. What you have to realize is that there are two sets of laws, and these laws can be on the federal or provincial level, and this is the source of confusion for a lot of people. What we want to do for you here is break things down in a way that will show you exactly what is and is not allowed for all parties involved.
To begin with, the two sides of the equation are the players and the game providers. Different laws exist that govern each of these. For example, a law that says that game providers can't offer games in a certain area does not make it illegal for players to get in on the action with those games if they are offered. A different law would be required affecting the players for that to be the case. This is because nothing is illegal unless there is specifically a law against it. This eliminates a lot of what can be considered a "grey area" by a lot of people.
Laws for Game Providers
The setup is really interesting for how the federal and provincial game providers work together in Canada. The main federal law on the topic of online gambling providers makes it illegal for any companies to offer gambling inside of Canada with the specific exception that the provinces can make certain games legal inside of their borders. This essentially gives the provinces all of the power in the situation, and it's a level of autonomy that you don't find in many areas of the world when it comes to the topic of Internet gambling regulations.
Several provinces run their own games so that they can pull in revenues which are then used for a lot of public projects. Saskatchewan is the notable exception to this, and they are actually the only province that has a law against companies providing any form of online gambling.
One major limitation to this that could change relatively soon is that the provinces are not allowed to license other companies to run games. The problem with this is that it puts the provinces at a major disadvantage because they are forced to start from scratch to try to compete with companies that have years (or decades) of experience in the industry.
Laws for the Players
Now here's the interesting part for people who want to get in on the action with online games. On a federal level, there are no laws in Canada that make it illegal to take part in all forms of online gambling. With that being said, there are some particularly unclear exceptions given in the criminal code, and if you ask 10 different experts their opinion of it, you're likely to get 10 different answers.
With that having been said, here's a simple fact: Not a single person has faced charges due to any type of online gambling in Canada. However, this online gambling source for Canadians will be sure to cover it in great detail if there ever is.
Weird Sports Betting Limitations
For the most part, Canadian online gambling law is set up in a way to have good intentions, even if it's not all that straight-forward. With sports betting, however, there's a bit of an exception to the rule. Offering bets on single sporting events is not allowed. Instead, it's only allowed if people are betting on a parlay of three or more individual events. Anyone who knows anything about sports betting can see how this is an ineffective rule that doesn't make much sense, but that's the law.
The Work of the Amaya Gaming Group
One thing threatening to really blow the legal situation wide open is the Amaya Gaming Group. They've been really pushing to get a number of laws changed and to have the online gambling legal framework revamped to make this clearer and easier to understand. One of their motivations for this is that they are the largest provider of online poker in the world by far, and they are based out of Montreal, Quebec. They're also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, so it's clear that something's going to have to give.
