Liberal MPP Jeff Leal’s new bill that aims to prevent the advertisement of online gambling services in Ontario is receiving healthy support from the Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
Despite the healthy taxation revenue the government receives from gambling operators in the province, a number of prominent individuals and organizations have spoken out against the increasing visibility of advertising for online casinos. The Center for Addiction and Mental Health has offered strong support to Leal’s proposed legislation. A poll conducted in 2000 by the Center found that 5.3 percent of adults in Ontario had participated in online gambling. The figure for 2006 is anticipated to be substantially higher.
While Leal’s bill is being applauded by traditional opponents of the online gambling industry, others say that the motives behind it may be motivated more by self-interest than social concern. In recent years Ontario’s registered and licensed gambling outlets that provide taxation revenue for the goverment have been forced to share an increasing segment of the market with the online gaming industry, in particular with online poker websites. Public Infrastructure Minister David Caplan has called the rise of online gaming in Canada “a real factor in the Ontario gaming scene.” The majority of online gaming sites operating in Canada are located offshore, denying both state and federal government taxation revenue and the ability to enforce regulations on the industry.

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