Right now, the laws surrounding gambling in Canada are quite chilled. When you compare them to their North American neighbor, the US, things are a walk in the park. US online casinos, for example, can be a bit of a legal nightmare in terms of navigating how they work.
Due to current regulations, most online casinos choose to set up operations offshore and provide services to Canadian gamblers from outside of the country's borders. There are some casinos which have a license by the Canadian authority Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
But that might not be the case for too much longer. It’s looking like there may be some gambling regulation being introduced in Canada pretty soon and for the first time in the history of the country, really.
What Do the Current Gambling Laws in Canada Look Like?
Right now, there is little to no regulation on players gambling in Canada. As long as you are over 19 years old, you can play online casino games and bet on sports till the cows come home. That’s a pretty chilled place to be and a good thing for the players for the most part.
Canada’s attitude to gambling has always been that it’s up to the individual player whether they choose to take part or not. They do advise against it, as most governments do, but they don’t go as far as to try and stop people from playing.
However, for the casinos themselves, things are a bit different. As we mentioned, it is not possible to set up an online casino site or sportsbook unless you have the direct backing of the Canadian government, and that is near impossible to get. For now. The only province that has established and regulated the iGaming market.
What Could Gambling Regulation in Canada Look Like?
A 2022 gambling report in Canada expressed an interest to make a bunch of changes to the way the online gambling market works in the country. It claims that there are benefits to allowing online casinos to operate in the country, and that’s quite exciting news.
These benefits are mainly financial. If players are allowed to play casino games in Canada, why not let the sites be set up there and tax them?
The note does say that it’s super important for casinos to behave in a way that’s fair to the players, so it’s likely that we’ll see a lot of rules attached to the licenses. That’s only a good thing though.
Which Provinces Could Begin to Start Regulating Gambling?
Instead of a national law being passed to regulate gambling activity in Canada, it’s more likely that there will be individual provinces passing rules one by one. So, the whereabouts in Canada you live could have an impact on how you’re affected by any new rules.
Right now, the gambling report only mentions one part of Canada: Ontario. It appears that Ontario will be the only province of Canada to roll out gambling licenses so far.
However, if it’s a successful project, there’s always a chance that other provinces throughout the country will follow suit and allow for online casino sites to be set up all over the country. Fingers crossed!
As for the players, nothing is going to change. It’s still perfectly okay to access online casino sites from around the world in Canada as long as they operate there. So, you should still be able to access all the best online casinos in Canada no matter where in the country you’re based.