this thread has taken a very interesting turn and is making me extremely happy.

gotta love canada.

tell me how FINTRAC & Bitcoin are not relevant to online gambling? Nobody is saying banned, what we are saying is that laws are expected to pass that put up added financial burden to operators & more scrutiny of player transactions. Is this not newsworthy?

If they activate the doomswitch I'm going to be pissed off.
Hopefully, they're actually just trying to make things more honest and prevent criminal activity.

ha, Im a relocated American with 8 months left on my lease. Im hoping this is just a ban on online casinos, at the very worst, and not online poker. I have faith in Canada



Aussieland would be awesome, but the animals and insects down there scare the **** out of me. I hear, in alot of places, people having to check for poisonous bugs and spiders before putting their shoes on. I also hear its not uncommon to have a giant tarantula crawling on your ceiling. Hellllllllll no

Other than that, Australia looks like a beautiful country

I guess I need to also ask how often CanadaPoker has been known to write shock & awe articles and then ask what they would gain by being misleading? Answer is zero, it's an affiliate driven site.

Its obv important to report and a serious issue for all players. In this instance it seems we are lucky because players motivations are inline with the Harper agenda. Obviously the government can inadvertently mess this up, but as long as everyone stays informed it shouldn't be an issue in a significant way and/or for a significant amount of time.

For those who are interested, here is the PokerFuse article:

http://pokerfuse.com/news/law-and-re...lations-13-02/

Aside from a single first-time poster, who's saying it wasn't?

No idea. But that's not really relevant to some of the points that have been made that this is old news and that the title is a little on the sensational side.

No, it isn't. How many people have been driven to the site from this thread alone? Affiliates run news articles hoping to bring in traffic; I'm not for a moment suggesting this site was trying to mislead anyone in order to bring in more traffic, but you dismissing the possibility out of hand doesn't remove it.

I should have quoted the first time poster to direct it towards him. I'm just hoping past history would show that CanadaPoker normally focuses on positive topics like player results and events. We didn't run stories like Raymer and WhoJedi because rather have nothing than smut. I'm not even sure who wrote this piece the motivation would be to be informative on what seems relevant and for that I would like to vouch, regardless of being newish here.

No aggression or offense meant, just a rebuttal to the auto-discount of the stories credibility.

@Newguy1234: Excellent post and thank you for that info. I am not Canadian but am currently in the process of moving there (my wife is from there) and so really need to be at least somewhat versed on this stuff!

I imagine that it's hard to be competitive when you have a tiny warchest compared to those you're competing against (illegally) and when you're paying local taxes and going through regulation hoops which they're not.

I would imagine they are also handcuffed by some of their own socially responsible policies, where as something like rake back might be considered offering incentive to gamble etc.

Using the PokerFuse link, it says 10k plus transactions would need to be reported. While it's true that winnings are considered windfalls in Canada, that doesn't mean a lifestyle audit can't be triggered when there is enough data to support it. And if there is lots of data pointing to a reasonable expectation of profit, what might the next move be? I'm grasping at straws here, but any change should be watched

"Pressure is mounting from the provincial lottery corporations who have introduced provincially regulated online gambling to Canadians but who continue to face difficult competition from established overseas gaming operators."


and there you have it. lol

They don't want to deal with the Indian Reserves. Every time they blockade something only the people trying to get home that have to go through them get arrested.

Playolg.ca was supposed to be up and running in April of 2011. The site is there but nothing happening. I sent an email asking them when and in a typical response that I expected from Ontario Larceny and Gouging they said 2014 with the spin that it takes a considerable amount of time to build a competitive secure gaming platform blah blah blah.
It is supposed to be a complete casino, I am not sure about how the poker is going to be but I hope it isn't run like the poker room at Fallsview Casino.

So there is no set date and it could be bumped to next year or the year after.
Also, You will be able to purchase your lottery tickets (649, LottoMax, etc) through the site.
OLG needs to streamline their system though.
It would be nice to be able to go to the casino or Slots and pick up wins up to 10,000.00 without going through the hassle of going to the OLG Office in Toronto.

My guess it is pressure from the US. Canada just signed a deal with the US about sharing banking information. The DOJ has been slowly crushing off-shore bookmaking operations, and guess what, those that survive to facilitate US customers often write Canadian cheques. So Canada is the next step in the holy crusade to hurt off-shore bookies. Skrill/Moneybookers just stopped offering their e-wallet to Canadians for gambling purposes. Titanbet just announced they are refusing Canadian players. These sort of things often mean something is coming down the pipe.

Yes indeed, the government will protect us.

In before Drewphish2 or one of his other accounts shows up with 47 questions that no one else cares about.

Margin wise Mexico is the go.

Apart from living in the bush (which you wouldn't want to with the **** internet connections), it is not even anything to consider if you live in suburbia or in the cities. Worst thing you will see is a redback spider or eastern brown in your backyard if you live on the east coast but the chances of that are pretty slim.

A government run site couldnt possibly be competitive vs an incumbent as strong as pokerstars. Its inevitable that these provincial sites fail, that they blame the failure on oversees competition, and push to block oversees competition. After that happens, they will still fail because there isn't enough traffic on a provincial basis, and barely enough traffic to support a national site.

1 - Pokerstars as been willing to shell money to enter the US, I bet that they are willing to do the same to stay in Canada. Having ties to the leadership is a big thing in those cases. Most offshore gambling site are Israeli owned. DYR.

Governements acts in a really simple manner, they get bought/pressured. But they rarely buy themselves...Election year...If you still believe that it's a conspiracy you must live in a real nice place.

Like many have said, Canada is always looking to take advantage of legislative US fallout.

Also the interest of the provinces and of the FED may be quite different.

2 - The indian reserve is a big issue because several online gambling servers are hosted on their territory. They would invoke their own laws to keep doing what they are doing. Therefore the legislation would have to target bank or consumers to be effective.

I disagree that these provincial sites will inevitably fail. They certainly wont have the same traffic as Pokerstars but they will be able to attract a new demographic, seniors. I feel like a lot of the older adults who you hear at casinos say "Pokerstars is rigged" may be a little more trusting of a Government run site. The Government run sites can also set up easier deposit methods (Visa/Mastercard, cash deposit at OLG certified convenience stores, etc). This will assist the same older demographic who might not be as tech savvy as the younger generation. Plus having blackjack, roulette, and other table games will always be profitable. Operating costs couldnt be too high once the site is already set up so I believe OLG wont challege Pokerstars as the market leader but they still be succeed. Just a thought....

+1

Just having easy deposit/withdraw methods (OLG slots and racetrack and MC Visa etc. is a huge advantage over offshore sites.

Being backed by the OLG is a major endorsement for reputation and trustworthiness.

I just dont see this happening. Many of the online gambling sites are on Canadian soil. The Oka Indian tribe and Khanawake has a ton of sites with servers on their land.

http://www.maplegambling.com/gamblin...e-gambling.asp


Cdn government battled the Oka over a golf course and will not battle them on this

Kahnawake is not Oka - different communities, different governance. Kahnawake is what you're thinking of though.

If one wants a key indicator about the future of online poker in Canada, I suggest that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment nor the Montreal Canadiens would take major sponsorship deals from a company without doing a great deal of due diligence. Rational Group properties - PokerStars and Full Tilt - are both key sponsors of the Leafs and the Habs.

Likewise, Partypoker is a publicly-traded company and that, in the past, led them to behave with an abundance of caution - i.e., exiting the US. But they stayed in Canada and remain here to this day.

Lastly, Canada has a track record of just not having laws where no laws are needed. This seems to be one of those areas - and in that context, the article is saying, sites involved in this industry have to comply with the same laws anyone else would who is moving lots of money. This is normal and should be welcomed, though it may be inconvenient. Applying these laws to poker sites, assuming they comply, is actually a sign that they are accepted businesses here rather than a threat to these businesses.

That's how I feel as well. Well said.

I play on PlayNow Poker in BC occasionally which is pooled with players in Manitoba and Quebec and is where OLG would link in if they ever deliver on their promise. The site is poorly designed, lacks many features, and is just plain ugly, but it is incredibly soft. BCLC's CEO stated a couple years ago that he thought this Canadian player network would compete with PokerStars. Obviously it hasn't even come close and I strongly doubt it ever will. The site has its place, though. I wrote an article a month or so ago about whether the public sector can compete with the private (won't link to it because I don't want to spam). The short version is, no it can't. I see no indicators that anything will change in Canada for online poker.