When it comes to online gaming there is a patchwork of regulations governing what is and what is not strictly legal throughout Canada. As the much respected Canadian Gambling Digest points out, this is a result of the state-by-state regulation of an industry that has evolved faster and expanded further than anyone had predicted. What makes the uneven coverage illogical – and in the longer term unsustainable – is that there is more to the gambling industry than tourist-friendly casinos and first nation resorts.
It may be a bit late to announce this as news, but the internet cuts across state boundaries just as easily as it does national borders. Online gaming is already big business throughout Canada. And just as the modern office is not so much about the physical buildings we work in as the people who do the work, 21st century gambling is more about digitally connecting real people than it is about real estate.
As someone once said, there are no border guards in cyberspace.
There are now dedicated gambling websites boasting recognisably Canadian urls. For example, http://ca.32red.com , jackpotcity.com/ca, cad.spinpalace.com represent just three of a number of online casinos that are doing steady business, taking bets and offering a range of cash-return games specifically to Canadians. For example, if you play here at the 32Red you can get $32 free for every $20 you deposit. You’ll find that many sites offer similar promotions that you can take advantage of as well.
The overall Canadian gambling market is estimated to be worth something in excess of six billion dollars a year. And given the burgeoning spread of digital technologies, an ever increasing proportion of that gaming is taking place online. Given that backdrop it is simply ridiculous to pretend that the current impasse can be sustained for much longer.
Last year Manitoba Lotteries launched PlayNow.com with the declared intention of capturing some $47 million of existing gambling revenues within the Province over the ensuing five years. The publicity surrounding the launch claimed that the site represented a way to tap into a stream of cash that was going to continue flowing irrespective of any legal intervention.
And that points to what appears to be an inevitable conclusion. Put simply, if you can’t beat them join them. Either way, whatever is decided at state level is likely to count for little if the wider regulatory context continues in its current patched-up and piecemeal fashion.
To be fair to those regulators, it is not just in Canada that the public’s appetite for gambling and the online providers’ willingness to facilitate it are outstripping their ability to get a handle on what is going on. As much as we may deride the current muddle in Canada, similar confusion reigns right now in Japan, South Africa and parts of mainland Europe, to say nothing of the US.
Online gambling is clearly something people want more of. In an open market, that would be a self-evident reason for providing more. And to an extent governments around the world are happy to go along with that, as long as they can guarantee their own slice of the action.
Governments have a convoluted relationship with gambling. Whilst they may have reservations about it, they are nonetheless all too aware of the economic benefits that it can offer. So the argument goes; if gambling equals tax, everyone is a winner. But as things stand, offshore-based internet gambling sees potential tax revenues simply disappearing over the horizon.
A more clear-sighted approach to the issue and a more co-ordinated regulatory framework would at least provide the means to see the Canadian economy benefit from the activity of its own citizens. Anything else just doesn’t make sense.
