Public Health Issue And Online Gambling Sites
June 15, 2024
At first glance it would not seem to make much sense to put those two topics together, those of public health and online casino action. Yet as popular as online casino gambling sites are for quite a number of Canadians, it would seem that there is a purported public health crisis that needs to be averted with these online casinos. Huh?
Yes, as arcane as the whole idea may appear to most Canadian online casino players, Loto-Quebec is making this dubious claim that they are acting for the good of all and diligently working to avert what they label a public health crisis. You might have noticed that Quebec only just recently passed the highly controversial Bill 74. If by chance you missed this headline news story, you need to understand that the language in Bill 74 authorizes the state run lottery to compile a so-called ‘blacklist’ of outside online gambling sites. More disturbingly, Bill 74 also includes language that authorizes Quebec government officials to impose rather hefty fines on Internet Service Providers (ISP) for noncompliance.
If you are thinking to yourself that this looks suspiciously close to nothing more than censorship, you are exactly right. Moreover, this language in Bill 74 has been criticized at the federal level as being in direct violation of the Canadian federal communication laws. The fact of the matter is that there is expected to be numerous legal challenges to these contentious provisions in Bill 74.
So what is this really all about? Does Loto-Quebec have the best interests of the people in mind or is there something else at play. Not surprisingly, the real issue seems to be about the money. Or more importantly, the lack of it flowing into Loto-Quebec. You see, Loto-Quebec barely maintains a 10% share of the local online gambling market.
Pay close attention to the fact that the disputed language in Bill 74 was actually added to the Bill at the behest of Loto-Quebec. Keep in mind that Bill 74 is actually the Quebec omnibus legislation. In other words, somehow and someway, Loto-Quebec officials were able to sneak their language in Bill 74 at the last moment.
How will this play out in the real world? As noted above, there are expected to be numerous challenges. As of now, the question of whether or not this blatant attempt at censorship will survive the legal challenges. Stay tuned as this is on schedule to be rolled out in a few weeks.
