online poker coming to the Canadian provinces

I saw a story recently where Loto-Québec is going to launch online poker. I also read that Ontario is thinking of launching a similar site.

To some this might seem like a good thing. It would seem to legitimize online poker more.

For me I'm concerned about it. Right now things are pretty good for online poker players in Canada. You can deposit money to the sites easily, [I'm told] you can withdraw your money easily and the banks will take the cheque no problem, we can play on whatever sites we choose for real money in the privacy of our homes without being hassled by the government about it. While online we can play against other Canadians or anyone in the world for that matter in cash games of any stakes or in play money, small buyin, and up to High Stakes Poker Tournament.

Here's what I'm concerned could happen if the Canadian provinces attempt to muscle in on the online poker scene. First the lotto corp declares legal monopoly rights over online poker. They make it illegal to play online for real money and pressure ISPs to block access to PokerStars, UB, Full Tilt, etc.

With only being able to play on the provincial lotto sites players would be required to enter their SIN number to be able to play. This becomes important below.

With a legal monopoly and a government agency running it and a limited player base the sites, games, security, software, support etc. will all suck. Rake will be prohibitive and it will be exactly like lotto tickets - the only people able to win will be favored insiders whose blatant cheating is disregarded.


Speaking of rake, with player SIN numbers the lotto will treat won pots as T4 taxable income while disregarding money lost at the tables. It could play out something like this.


A casual player sits down at $25 NL with $25. He then loses down to $10. Then he gets all in on the flop with a flush draw and catches on the river to double up to $20. He then leaves down $5 right? No the $10 he won in the all in is sent on a T4 in January as raw income and he has to pay $5 tax [at 50% tax, standard in Canada]. So he really lost $10. By requiring players to give their SIN number to play they can basically make it a raw cash grab from the captive players.


So all in all I hope this doesn't happen. Right now things are pretty good for Canadian online players and we don't need some government bureaucrats coming in to take it over and ruin it. A lot of bad could come of this and not much good.