Lottery Companies in Canada Are Now Pushing Hard For Some Form of Legalized Online Gambling

February 7, 2014

Online gamblers in Canada have taken a real beating in recent months. What with multiple large online casino sites pulling out of Canada completely, and several companies associated with online gambler stopping offering their services to Canadian online gamblers, things have been looking pretty grim for online casino players in Canada. But this may change, due to the increasing pressure that local Canadian lottery companies are putting on the government.

Two provincial lottery companies have seen their CEO step up and start making noise about the state of online gambling in Canada. Both the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation are beginning to make a lot of noise. The two affluent CEO are Rod Philips and Michael Graydon, bot well known to online gamblers in Canada. And both of these people have been pushing for sweeping changes to the way that online casino sites are regulated in Canada, and this is good news for Canadian online gamblers.

The core of contention for both the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation is Bill C-290, a bill that proposes only very minor changes to online gambling laws that would see online casio sites able to offer single event sports book services to Canadian online gamblers. That’s it, that’s all this bill changes with regard to the legality of online gambling in Canada, but this bill has been stuck, awaiting Senate review and action for over two years!

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation are pushing for Bill C-290 to be passed, as this would possibly set the stage for further amendments to online gambling laws in Canada, that could eventually lead to Canadian online gamblers having access to completely legal, fully featured online casino sites.

However, Bill C-290 has had very few supporters, not long term ones at least, the two people mentioned above, Rod Philips and Michael Graydon, are just the latest in a long line of people who have championed Bill C-290 over the last few years, all with very little or no success. It may well be that these two commercial champions can push the bill forward, as it has been politicians supporting the bill previously. So let’s hope that soon Canadian online gamblers will be able to place single event bets at their choice of online casino sites soon.