Gambling in Canada: Provincial Online Casinos vs Regular Online Casinos
Most of the online casinos in Canada today is run by the provincial governments. While some people may say that this is a good way for those provincial governments to earn some extra money, instead of trying to do the impossible and suing anyone gambling, or that they can regulate this much better than non-government led casinos, others have their own reasons why they don’t like to play in a government casino.
One of the things that is seen as a big problem with online casinos that are run by Canadian province governments is the fact that access is restricted. In fact, they only allow people from that province to play. Personally, I think that one of the best things about online casinos is the convenience of gambling and the fact that you can meet people who are kilometers and kilometers away from you, without having to budge from your room. If you don’t give me this option, I can’t say that I can find your casino attractive enough.
The first online casino in Canada was launched in July 2010 by the province of British Columbia. They had a good idea with this, but because they had no experience with this, nor anyone to learn from, they immediately ran into some problems. The biggest one was a breach in their website security, which allowed 134 player accounts to be compromised. This meant that other people could see their data and even place bets on their account. Of course, the casino was soon shut down and re-launched in August, but the damage was already done and couldn’t be repaired. The new website also had its own share of problems, as the players often complained that they couldn’t verify some information via credit card and that they also were put on hold for more than half an hour by the customer service before receiving a reply.
I don’t intend to just criticize provincially licensed casinos. These initial problems have certainly a lot to do with the inexperience of people who didn’t have a lot to go by in these early days, so they were bound to get into situations like these. But, they are learning fast and, because they have a lot more resources than the average casino owner, they are beginning to be very successful.
Spending money in a provincial online casino means that you have a general idea where your money will be going, but you can consider it as another form of taxes and most people don’t like the taxes they already have to pay, without adding more to them, so they chose independent online casinos, instead.
There are reasons for and against playing in an online casino that is run by the provincial government and an independent online casino and they all have their unquestionable advantages, but, in the end, it is the player that makes the ultimate decision on where he or she is going to try his or hers luck.
June 8th, 2017