Canada’s Ontario province, of which Toronto is the largest city, announced the introduction of a bill intent on stopping all forms of advertising for online gaming and online gambling companies. The proposed bill is a modification of Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act of 2002, and is spearheaded by Ontario Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips.

Phillips said the bill is important to protect Canada’s youth. “There’s no doubt that there’s a substantial number of young people who are participating on these illegal gambling sites.”

However, like in the US, the bill does not include imposing the same law for online racetrack betting. “In the province of Ontario we’ve got a very large horseracing industry,” said Phillips, “The breeders, the people who run the farms and the racetracks — and it’s very good business.”

In addition, the government-run lotteries are showing reduced revenues, while a recent study shows that the number of people aged 18 to 24 who reported having gambled online has roughly quadrupled from 2001 to 2005, rising from 1.4% to 5.5%.

As with recently passed U.S. legislation, the Ontario proposal does not criminalize the playing of the game itself; it instead goes after one of the pipelines that offers exposure and access to the game. The prohibition on advertisements is directly phrased, even if limited in scope; section 13.1 (1) of the proposed code reads as follows: ‘No person shall advertise an internet site that operates an internet gaming business contrary to the criminal code (Canada).’

However, the next clause, covering sponsorships, has the potential to affect at least one famed Ontario-born player: ‘No person shall enter into a sponsorship relationship with an internet gaming business that is operated contrary to the criminal code (Canada).’

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 9:25 am and is filed under Online Poker, Poker Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.