Laws pertaining to online gambling and online casinos in Canada are somewhat complicated to say the least. This is because of Canada’s political system. Canada is divided into 10 provinces namely, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Quebec and Saskatchewan and three territories; namely Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. Initially, gambling and casino laws came under the jurisdiction of individual provinces, which meant that each of these provinces and territories were allowed to introduce laws legalising or banning casinos and any other form of gambling operations.
Even though gambling is legal mostly across the country, the legality of online gambling and online casinos in Canada is also determined locally. Even though it is true in general that the provinces have their own laws pertaining to gambling, in order to extend a game across a certain province, the online casino needs to get a license from the authorities of one of the casinos. Currently, every province in the country except Saskatchewan (at least in theory) has online gambling casinos. But in actual practice, only Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia are the only provinces that actually issue online gambling licenses. These sites are only operated locally and can only provide games across province borders if they have a special inter province agreement in between the two local authorities.
Canada, being the large lucrative market that it is for online gambling, is very open to the idea. There are many online gambling operators that apply for licenses for setting up a n online casino. However, there are only so many games available in online casinos to choose from for the majority of the Canadian population. Unlicensed offshore operators on the other hand, operate freely in the country because according to Canadian Criminal law, a casino can only be penalised if they have a physically available brick and mortar branch on Canadian soil. This law was used once during a case with Starnet Communications, who was charged with unlawful gambling activity and involvemtnt in online pornogrphy. Even amidst all this there is good news. It is still technically forbidden for online casinos to appeal to the canadian public, it is not however illegal for canadian public ro seek out and play at offshore online casino sites. There is no reported ISP ban on financial institutions that transfer gambling money from offshore casinos.
Online Casinos That Accept Players From Canada
Here are a few online casinos that have been tried and tested and are trustworthy enough to be recommended. All of these casinos also allow Canadians to play in Canadian dollars.
- Betsson Online Casino
- Betsafe Online Casino
- Casino Euro Online Casino
- Black Lotus Casino
- Lotus Asia Casino
- 32 Red Casino
- BGO Online Casino
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