Ontario Legislature To Consider Privatizing Online Casino Gambling
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Doug Ford's government wants to privatize online gambling. Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation operates land-based casinos and an online casino. Quebec's lottery offers online poker. The government also wants the federal government to remove the prohibition on single-game sports betting. It is not clear if Ontario will have any online Poker sites.
The 2020 budget proposes privatizing online gambling.
Ontario Legislature To Consider Privatizing Online Casino Gambling. If the proposed legislation is passed, a dedicated subsidiary under the AGCO would be established as the conduct and manage entity to manage the relationship between the government and private iGaming operators.
The 2020 budget focuses on COVID-19 and its economic impacts. Online gambling is now presented as a path to economic recovery. Legal online gambling in Ontario would be about a $547 million market even without single-game sports betting. The industry expects it to be taxed at around 18% to 20%. It would also produce new tax revenue somewhere in the low hundreds of millions.
COVID has decimated Canadian gambling revenue. Ontario's OLG is projecting revenue of just $200 million in 2020. Most Canadians gamble online with foreign operators. Ontario should consider issuing licenses to these companies and collecting taxes from them. The authorities haven't objected to them operating in Canada. They would have little ability to enforce the law. Canada is effectively a gray market at the moment. PokerStars, Bet365 and 888 accept business from Canada because the authorities don't object.
The political situation in Canada is very different from that in the US. Conservatives are leading the charge for gambling expansion in Ontario. Liberals would prefer to retain a government monopoly. The left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) backs the Conservatives on the sports betting issue. Even Liberal resistance is evaporating. The bill to strike down the prohibition died in Parliament this fall, but is now back on agenda. For Ontario in particular, the legalization of sports gambling in Michigan is a big issue, because some casinos fear losing business to those in Detroit.
