Buddha;235468 wroteThere's an article about this in the August issue of Poker Pro Canada. According to the article, Lotto Quebec plans to offer online poker later this year. Atlantic Lotto plans the same, or early 2011. Ontario is "working on it."
At the risk of getting shot... what's so bad about regulation? The safeguards should protect the players. Yes, our heavy regular often sucks... but heavy regulation is what saved our banks and our financial system while the US and Europe were sinking away...
(I should probably mention I'm a banker by profession) :P
In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with regulation, but it's going to radically change the current poker world.
After all the online poker scandals (UB/Absolute, Pitbull, etc) regulation has been sought after by many organizations, including the PPA, in an effort to assure the games are fair and safe. The online poker world operates as close to the wild west as any business going today.
However, if all nations follow the French/Italian model, the following will occur:
- The market will be heavily segmented, as you'll only be able to play against players from you own country, making the player pool much smaller (unless regulated/licensed nations agree to pool their players)
- The rake will be increased to pay for licensing fees and taxes, as this will be paid by player, not the sites in the form of increased rake
- Professional players will have a much harding time making a living from poker, as it's much easier to beat a 5% max $3 rake in comparison to a 10% max $5-7 rake
- Perk programs like rakeback/rewards programs will be somewhat limited
Online poker will become a land of recreational players being taxed for their enjoyment, just like OLG establishments. Winrates of pro players will either go down (due to the increased rake and less perks like rakeback), go up (because more recreational players feel it's safe to play), or just stay the same. Time will tell.
Regulation and government licensed online poker is coming whether we like it or not. I'm just curious to see how it's dealt with in Canada.
