The discussion surrounding whether online casino gambling is legal in Canada continues to gain traction. Differentiating laws and policy between shifting governments at both a national and provincial level in Canada has caused no shortage of Canadians to investigate whether they can gamble online. This is very unfortunate because although there is an answer, it gets colluded in grey areas that are not clear. In this article we aim to clear the waters and provide a clear path pertaining to this controversy.
The short answer to the question is yes – online gambling is legal. As a great article from Canadian-based CBC News points out gambling is stuck in an unnecessary grey area. Essentially, Canada bans its citizens from creating their own casino sites and offering real money gambling services to other Canadians. However, when it comes to Canucks gambling at casino sites offering real money services this perfectly legit. Seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it?
The purpose for this scenario is to both protect and give freedom to Canadians. On the protective side, this is more of the Canadian government telling its citizens it does not want to set up special oversight for the online gambling industry, and rightfully so. This can be very complex and causes the government to invest in a lot of money into something that may cause Canadians to lose more money, hence the reason such moves is also protective. Nevertheless we see this more as recognition of not wanting to deal with such scenarios instead of facing their challenges at hand.
On the freedom side, the government gives Canadians the benefit of the doubt and lets them gamble at their own discretion. In Canada it is not illegal to gamble with offshore casino sites offering services in Canada, and only major casino operators do so within legal international framework and practices in order to avoid becoming international thieves. This includes going through audits from the eCOGRA and gaining international gaming licenses from Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) that are recognized as legit companies in accordance with Canadian law for overseeing gambling.
Any time a Canadian searches for a legit site they should look to see the signs a casino is safe and whether their casino of choice complies with these international gaming laws. If so, you can legally deposit and withdraw money at this site for any type of game, including blackjack. If you have any questions you can always contact the international organisations mentioned above toll free to verify.
To be clear, a player is not held illegally responsible for depositing money at an online casino that is fraudulent. In this type of scenario there is almost no chance the player will withdraw because the site is fake to begin with but just because you may have deposited money doesn’t subject you to purchasing something illegal, rather it just means you got screwed. Remember, there is protection against Canadians to deposit money with operators and if you mistakenly do so with an illegal one either in Canada or outside it is your own personal loss. This is much different compared to buying some kind of illegal drug from abroad that is both illegal to buy in and outside of Canada and is important to point out.
As you can see many consider gambling online to be a grey area yet it is pretty clear what Canadians can and cannot do. Canada’s Parliament is debating if it wants to change online gambling laws but so as of recent there have been no new developments. The Trudeau administration has maintained its position on allowing gambling, following en suite with past governments as well. Moving forward into the future it will be difficult to tell whether this will change but most likely a scenario much like the one occurring in Australia is that operators will also need to obtain some sort of special license and pay Canadian taxes.
Locating a Legal Casino Site
All of the sites promoted here are legal, safe and secure. They also offer great bonuses, incentives and a wide variety of games for every gambler to take advantage of. We have followed and checked the guidelines pertaining to legality for our recommended casinos and can vouch for them 100%. There have been no reports of Canadians or anyone else being mistreated at these casino sites and they have the most reputable images in the online world.