Yeah, this is a huge loss for global poker. Canada is a wealthy country that contributes a lot of fish to the global pools and Ontario is the biggest province population wise.

The Manitoba/BC poker site is awfull. Terrible software and not much traffic. The table view is horrendous. You have to really squint to see who is still in the game. I hope Ontario players don’t have to play in some crap site like that.

Luckily I’m in Manitoba and so far we can still play on GG, Stars etc.

Like why are they tryna f*ck our sh*t up?

By this logic the ring fenced ontario games should be a fish tank, no?

wow how naive we were a decade ago when we all wanted regulated online poker. there we have it! seems like governments f*ck things up, regardless of the location. they should let people do their own sh*t if noone is hurt on the way. greedy bastards.

I mean maybe eventually if it doesn't suck. will they advertise for fish? will they rake higher so it wont matter that we play vs more fish? (probably most seg marketd do) Will alot of fish quit rather then learn how to run through goverment hurdles? I play short deck theres no way that will be sustainable. will plo? holdem is trash

My main concerns here would be a very high/unbeatable rake and poor management (which creates lots of problems). Now there are what we can call "specialized" companies like stars and party that know their customers and try to make the experience pleasant. When government gets involved, these people are mostly incompetent, have a nice salary and don't have a boss/board who is very profit oriented. They work as if they work in a communist country, their performance isn't rated so for that reason I would expect any site deployed by government to be poorly managed and the software and game variety to be shity. Also in an absence of concurrence, the rake should be very high. All in all, if a company like pokerstars will manage the reservation, as it is in Michigan and Pennsylvania, I would say this could turn interesting. Otherwise, expect a disaster.

It's absolutely a disaster for EVERYONE involved. There's no other way to put it if this happens. 100% f*ck the Canadian government and their incompetent asses, can't even keep a protest from jamming up the entire country and now they think what they're doing to online poker is somehow a good thing? Online poker is pretty much the only thing I do since the pandemic [which they've never been on the same page with how to deal with] and now they just wanna tank it into the ground?

Let me have my little slice of happiness during this pandemic you imbiciles!

Has Anyone checked with support at GG, Party, or 888 to see if they have an official stance? I would but I am only on PS.

FWIW the BC/MB site 'PlayNow' is the respective provinces official lotto and gaming site and operated BY those entities. This Ontario situation is a bit different in that outside operators will seek licenses to run their *own* sites in the province.

I lived in BC for a couple of years and can confirmed PlayNow was...mostly unplayable (almost impossible to play > one table, no troll). However, we will likely be fortunate enough to see companies like Pokerstars and Party in the market soon, if not at launch (especially PS who has an office in Toronto).

I'm not super optimistic about traffic/liquidity on an Ontario-only site even if the games that do run will almost definitely be softer than what we have now. Fingers-crossed at least a few people feel more confident/safe putting their money on site regulated by the province.

I believe its more about the "big" picture in which each jurisdiction will want their own pie. Not a piece of the global pie, just their own pie.

If this is to happen, each state, province, country, etc. will set up a geo-fence and that will be the end of a global player pool.

That, I believe, is not good for poker in the long run.

FYP, just so you know where to send your emails to.

so ****ing annoying, can't stand our Ontario government this is just awful

If you care about this issue, please take time to submit a complaint to AGCO.

We called the iGO office and they told us to direct our concerns here ^

The woman on the phone said they've received several calls from poker players and expect many more. Let your government know what you want. I believe Ontarians should retain the right to access the ROW player pool, as all other Canadians do. We still have time before this goes live on April 4th.



Here's an example submitted by one of our Discord members:

I'm in Montreal and our government tried to do something similar, but luckily it failed. We have Loto-Quebec's OK Poker that pools with BC/Manitoba, but it's pretty bad (not a lot of players). I'm currently part of a Home Game on PokerStars that a co-worker from Toronto started when COVID hit. 70+ players who play every Saturday. It's been a lot of fun and I hope this isn't the end of that. I wish you Ontarians the best of luck. I wouldn't wish this poker geofencing on my worst enemy, even if they are Leafs fans.

Complaining the gov isn't breaking up a protest fighting government restriction/control while also complaining about government control. That is amazing lol This is the state of Canada in a nutshell.

this seems like an amazing thing for those of us in ontario. games will be way softer, and all ontario action will likely end up being concentrated on one site.

i may just call that line to express approval and explain how effective it will be in keeping money "in the province".

The one game that will be running……. Good bye all decent formats and guarantees.

The protest is an embarassment, the government is dropping the ball on shutting it down, and ruining online poker for Ontario is egregious.

I don't understand your point, is it pointing out the irony of the situation? I am flattered that I was able to take your post virginity tho

https://discord.gg/nHvPX8NbnV

Again, here is a link to a discord for Ontario poker players, to follow the updates and find ways to legally communicate our displeasure.

We have no way to know what numbers would look like on any particular site and it depends on how licensing works, but 1 table? Come on.

There are pokerbros groups for Toronto underground games that (at least for a while) had several tables running nightly.

I’m guessing most of the player base scattered around international sites will end up congregating to one or two local servers. Way more than enough to support at least a few nl tables from micros up to 1/2nl in the evenings, maybe a table or two of bigger games on weekends. It’s all speculation at this point but to guess 1 table … 1 table of what?


If you multitable $500nl or higher it’s bad for you clearly. If you’re all about the big guarantees then it’s bad. For most it’ll just mean softer tables and a more lively chat.

check the rake on segregated sites, its 50% to 100% higher, more than negates softer games. Segregated sites have no reason to compete on rakeback either.

The plethora of Betrivers casino ads I've been seeing when watching the Olympics makes a lot of sense now. Not that they're offering poker, at least not at this time.

does anyone know if playing on pokerstars is fine in qeubec? I only live 30 minutes away and probably gotta move. I dont really know anyone from there and it seems grey

I'm in Quebec and it's fine. They tried blocking offshore poker sites at the ISP level, but they lost in court. I currently play on PokerStars, PartyPoker, 888 Poker, and GG Poker with no issues.