Premier Doug Ford’s government is seeking a precedent-setting court ruling on whether Ontario’s regulated online gaming sites can legally allow gamblers in the province to play with people outside Canada.
The case, which is scheduled to be heard in a Toronto courtroom this fall, was triggered by an order-in-council from Ford’s cabinet earlier this year.
That cabinet order asks the Ontario Court of Appeal to rule on this question: “Would legal online gaming and sports betting remain lawful under the Criminal Code if its users were permitted to participate in games and betting involving individuals outside of Canada?”
At stake in the case, according to industry insiders, are hundreds of millions of dollars in potential wagers on online poker and daily sports fantasy betting sites, which currently cannot legally allow Ontarians to mix with their global pools of players.
“You could see, I think, a significant increase in the poker business in the province,” said Paul Burns, …