Heads Up: Canadian Online Casino Players
April 20, 2016
Big brother is looking to put an end to your online casino game play. Huh? That’s right. You may not have seen the recent story arising out of Montreal from The Canadian Press. In this story, it was revealed that a Bill is slowly but surely winding its way through the legislative process. Get this: chances are pretty good you have not even heard anything about this Bill that looks to put a quash on online casino action. The reason you have not heard so much about the Bill is that to date there has been scant media attention to this topic.
Here’s what you will want to be aware of. First take note that this is Bill 74. Get this: Bill 74 is all about forcing Internet Service providers to block residents of Quebec from accessing online gambling sites that are not approved by the government. Quite naturally, this sort of prohibition that Bill 74 is seeking is raising alarm bells from those who are clearly concerned about a free and open Internet.
As you might well expect from an elected official, the finance minister from Quebec went on record to state that Bill 74 is needed to protec the health and safety of Quebec residents. The minister insisted that the so called ‘illegal online casino gambling sites’ don’t apply the same responsible rules as those online gambling sites run by the government.
Aha! There it is. Did you you catch that one? In other words, the minister from Quebec is not so much against online gambling sites after all. Instead from what he is saying, it appears that he wants online casino players to only ever show up at state run online gambling sites.
You may well be of the same opinion as a growing number of critics of Bill 74. After all, this sort of legislation is unprecedented for Canada. You don’t even to think about it so much to see that the minister is desperately attempting to protect the monopoly status. Worse still, if enacted into law, Bill 74 could prove to be the proverbial slippery slope of increased prohibitions and outright censorship.
Thankfully, a growing number of critics and law experts are pointing out that Bill 74 clearly violates freedom of expression and even contradicts current federal telecommunications law. All that being said, if in fact you are a fan of your right to choose which online casino to visit you may well want to keep an eye on what happens with Bill 74.
