Uh Oh! Plan To Block Online Gambling?

October 21, 2023

That would seem to be what is going on in Quebec. Actually it was sort of buried fairly deep in the 2023 - 2024 budget plan. The language for this plan was worded such that the existing laws already on the books would be radically altered. Specifically the language in the Consumer Protection Act as well as existing gambling laws were targeted.

Actually it gets worse than merely tinkering around with existing laws. Apparently there is other language that mentions setting up an illegal website filtering measure. Huh? Does that sound like Big Brother gone amuck?

As in censorship? All the same, do understand this latest move by Quebec authorities to quash online gambling is being widely criticized. In fact, no less than the chair of the Canadian branch of the Internet Society even went so far as to issue a warning in writing.

The chair, Timothy Denton put it this way about Quebec’s plan: “its expensive, it’s futile and it sets a bad precedent. Denton continued by pointing out that the proposal as it stands right now is nothing less than a “…direct attack on the freedom of thought and probably violates the trade and free commerce clause in the constitution.

So what is going on in Quebec that sparked this sudden and radical attack on online casinos and online gambling sites? As of now, there is no clear indication of what this is really all about. As in surely those behind what looks to be a direct assault against online casino operators have some sort of reasoning behind their actions. Unless they don’t.

For the record the Internet Society has been around since 1992. The stated purposed of the Society is protect the rights of citizens to freely access and use the Internet. Actually, according to the Society itself, their mission is nothing more than “to promote the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for all people throughout the world”.

So when you have an organization such as the Internet Society standing up and publicly denouncing this move by Quebec that should in fact tell you something. Or better yet, it should tell those behind this plan in Quebec that perhaps the path they are attempting to tread is not such a good one after all.

Truth be told, this situation may turn out to be a non issue. You see, the Quebec minister of finance, Nathalie Roberge pointed out that as of late there has been no development on this issue. Well that should certainly trigger a collective sigh of relief from online gambling operators. Yet you can’t help but ask yourself what this was really all about.