Save Canadian Poker

Internet gambling and direct advertising of internet gambling is already illegal in the Canadian Province of Ontario. But many sites advertise poker sites where people can play for free using play money to learn the game. However, once a player goes to the free site, they can easily be directed to the site where they can play for real money.

So now Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips introduced Bill 152, an omnibus consumer protection bill with a section to close a loophole making it unlawful for Ontario businesses to indirectly advertise or sponsor gambling sites.

Phillips is essentially adopting, in government legislation, a private member’s bill introduced earlier this year by Jeff Leal, Liberal MPP for Peterborough. While Leal was clear on his website that his bill was protectionism and nothing more (he worried about the hits that the lotteries and Kawartha Downs racetrack were taking), Phillips says the bill will protect against gambing which is highly addictive and too accessible to underage players.

Current advertising site owners say the Ontario government is only trying to protect their gaming interests, principally live casinos, lotteries and race tracks- which are losing money to Internet gambling sites and to live casinos in the United States given the current high value of the Canadian dollar.

Revenues for the government-owned Ontario Lotteries and Gambing Corp., which operates the province’s live casinos, were down $335 million the over the past three years. Plus the business is expected to drop another $210 million this year.