Ontario Government will have online poker

BuyinBank

Hobbes;235323 wroteNice Brag ;)

Thanks. Beat? The wife's still pissed off I claimed them. :(

leafster99

Wonder if the rake'll be $5 for a $50 win?

Hellmuth's Mole

Why does anybody care?

I believe the chances that they are competitive with the products that the current major on-line sites offer will be slim and none. So no moderately savvy poker player is going to go near the site for anything other than shits and giggles (or to look to take advantage of the poker illiterate that will no doubt be there).

Look at it as a stupidity tax a la lotteries. If the government can collect more funds without sticking their hand in my pocket I'm all for it.

Milo

People care because they can see what is coming down the road, namely some variation of the following:

ONgov: People like to piss their $$$ away in casinos, so if we have them here, we will get all that revenue.

ONgov: Okay, our casinos suck, and they are not making as much $$$ as we had hoped, but people are gambling on-line. If we offer on-line gambling, we will get all that revenue, too.

ONgov: Okay, our site sucks, it is riddled with problems, and we are still not getting the $$$ we had hoped.

ONgov: We are the only supplier of responsible gaming, so all other sites will be banned in Ontario.

HVEEPOKER

ONTgov is going to to what they do best. Phuk us in the rectum and not even give us a kiss.
HELLO MR ANDERSON. TIME FOR YOUR WEEKLY INSTALLMENT.

BuyinBank

Milo;235353 wroteONgov: We are the only supplier of responsible gaming, so all other sites will be banned in Ontario.

This is the one most poker players are worried about, but it would be difficult to regulate province by province, as opposed to nation by nation.

Italy and France have already gone this route. The US is currently looking at going this route and are expected to do so in the near future.

While I think it's unlikely Canada will do it as well, opening provincial online casinos is the first step towards making it happen.

There have also been talks about giving online poker their own unique, three-letter domain extension (like they did with porn sites and the xxx extension a couple of months ago). If that becomes a requirement, it will make it very easy to block "unlicensed" gaming sites across specific nations.

Milo

See, I actually think the US might be looking at some sort of licensing agreement. In other words, either FTP or P*'s becomes the official licensed on-line gaming site for the US of A. For an appropriate annual fee (read %), of course. All others would be frozen out, until the agreement came up for renewal.

So much more profitable that way, too . . . $$$ for nothing, really, which is something any politician can understand.

philliivey

Milo is on to something, there is a article in today's Barrie paper about a mayor commenting on all the sites there are now online and how it might affect casino's here if they go along with this site. So not really looking good, but too early to tell yet.

leafster99

I don't know, but with Canada being the way it is with all these rules and regulations about everything, this seems to be the beginning of the end to me. Penalties or taxes for international online gambling and higher rakes here. Look at Poker at B&M casinos. The rake is an absolute joke at the low levels I play at.

Hellmuth's Mole

You guys all see monsters under your bed too right?

Milo

And, if you assume I am correct, I know who will win the bid for Ontario.

Liberal Party Hack = Super-User

This Bad Beat brought to you by your provincial government . . . :D

leafster99

Hellmuth's Mole;235385 wroteYou guys all see monsters under your bed too right?

I don't know. Does a bedbug count as a monster?

Milo

No monsters, Mole, just the logical extension of government over-reach.

Government will see revenue from on-line gaming as a net good.

The logical conclusion for government will be that a government monopoly in on-line gaming is better.

The fact that those two statements are absurd does not mean they will not happen.

Hellmuth's Mole

No monsters eh? Sport Select (now Pro-line) launched 26 years ago and Bowmans, Bodog and hundreds other sports wagering sites are still on-line.

Funny, when I was searching for the launch of pro-line I ran across this little tidbit......

When Sports Select was established back in 1984, a couple days after it launched, news columnist Charles Gordon shared his opinion in an article published in Ottawa Citizen Newspaper when he said, “this [Sports Select] is not gambling, it is another tax on the stupid”.

You don't have to be the best or the only game in town. There will always be stupid to tax.

iNano78

Milo;235386 wroteAnd, if you assume I am correct, I know who will win the bid for Ontario.

Liberal Party Hack = Super-User

This Bad Beat brought to you by your provincial government . . . :D

I can see the headlines now:

"Dalton McGuinty appoints Russ Hamilton and friends to set up Ontario provincial online gambling site in exchange for diplomatic immunity"

>:D

Wetts1012

In the cases of Italy and France, didnt they work in coordination with Stars?

I thought it was similar to something like Pokerstars.IT or .FR, where you could only play on the client that was country specific.

I can see this being a direction that we are headed, where Stars controls the games, and the Gov't simply regulates and collects some chop.

BuyinBank

Hellmuth's Mole;235385 wroteYou guys all see monsters under your bed too right?

Actually, this has already happened in Italy and France, exactly the way Milo described it.

In fact, a bill was introduced in the US just last week dealing with how to tax and licence online gaming. It also included a section stating that all operators that are currently working illegally in the US will be denied licences, though P* and FT may have legal loopholes to get around that.

Merge, Cake, Everleaf, and Bodog probably won't be so lucky.

Ever wonder why www.pokerstars.it or now www.pokerstars.fr exist? There's been a lot of press about this over the last year, all over the interwebz.

In Italy, Italian players can only play on sites with Italian licences, which cater only to Italian players and no one else. It just happened in France and the players are pissed because the rake went way, way up to cover taxes and licencing fees.

The same will happen in the US soon. Not a monster. It already exists.

BuyinBank

Milo;235381 wroteSee, I actually think the US might be looking at some sort of licensing agreement. In other words, either FTP or P*'s becomes the official licensed on-line gaming site for the US of A. For an appropriate annual fee (read %), of course. All others would be frozen out, until the agreement came up for renewal.

So much more profitable that way, too . . . $$$ for nothing, really, which is something any politician can understand.

If this happens, it's very likely it will be Party Poker. Not FTP or P* imo.

They've paid a big fine to the US, followed the rules, and waited patiently for regulation to happen.

EDIT: And they're just about to merge with Ongame.

EDIT 2: Link I've been looking for: http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/hr-2267-passes-house-financial-services-committee-13760/

GTA Poker

Hellmuth's Mole;235346 wroteWhy does anybody care?

I believe the chances that they are competitive with the products that the current major on-line sites offer will be slim and none. So no moderately savvy poker player is going to go near the site for anything other than shits and giggles (or to look to take advantage of the poker illiterate that will no doubt be there).

Look at it as a stupidity tax a la lotteries. If the government can collect more funds without sticking their hand in my pocket I'm all for it.

Obviously you are very naive as to what has been going on in the online poker world

leafster99

GTA Poker;235452 wroteObviously you are very naive as to what has been going on in the online poker world

Agreed, this isn't going to just be an experiment, it will likely be some kind of regulation. If you play poker full time, you should start getting fitted for your OLG uniform.:D

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