Legality of Poker in Canada
Hi lads
Im new to poker in Canada but ran a card club in Ireland. In Ireland casinos are illegal but they can be ran as part of a private members club so there is loads of clubs/casinos there.
I would be interested in running games in Ontario and im just wondering is there anyway around it. I have a few ideas as to how it could be possible.
Has the idea ever been thrown out of running tournaments where the guys can register online. This gets around there been money payed out on the day and pretty much makes the game legal does it not?
Im based in Toronto im any operators want to pm me for a chat that would be great or anyone with potential interest.
Im new to poker in Canada but ran a card club in Ireland. In Ireland casinos are illegal but they can be ran as part of a private members club so there is loads of clubs/casinos there.
I would be interested in running games in Ontario and im just wondering is there anyway around it. I have a few ideas as to how it could be possible.
Has the idea ever been thrown out of running tournaments where the guys can register online. This gets around there been money payed out on the day and pretty much makes the game legal does it not?
Im based in Toronto im any operators want to pm me for a chat that would be great or anyone with potential interest.
Comments
Long answer? It's the government, and there is no way around them. Sooner or later there will be a knock on the door, or a boot through it, and charges will be laid.
I mean lets say you rent out a room at a hotel big enough to cater for 200 i guess your going to have to charge a big reg due to no cash games but would guys really complain if the structure was top class.
Its the same as the games i seen advertised play for free in pubs.
All payouts would be done through the site so even if the police did raid everyones money is safe.
Rake free home games are legal, but I don't think that is what you had in mind.
Cops don't bother with these as 1. The games are rake free. 2. there is no booze being sold and 3 Working girls are not upstairs relieving players of there STRESS, (TO put it nicely)
People who do run card rooms for profit. Taking a rake and selling alcohol and other things eventually do get caught.
If you are making a living off of said card room you will get popped eventually.
The law can then, Take everything you have , House cars etc as proceeds of crime.
Keeping a common gaming house is the legal term. If you are using your gains to pay for your house and the fancy sports cars you are driving then these are proceeds of that crime.
I know one individual who lost everything 2 yrs ago.
As far as buying into a live tournament and paying on line, You are going to be hard pressed to find people who will do this as they have no Idea who or where you are.
Lets say i organise the game in hotel these are dreamworld figures essentially.
1000 euro in reg comes in lets say no dealers etc... for easy figures.
Hotel charges 400 for everything.
This leaves me up 600 we cant have that can we.
Oh yes i forgot the poker site are charging me 600 for using there site to hold money.
There we go no one making money.
Lets say if i want to run a game in a hotel is it illegal because the hotel is profiting for us using the facilities?
Thats pretty obvious i agree thats why im hoping someone may pm me who is more established in the community.
Id say its possible i could arrange registration on ipoker. I also have experience in running a card room in Ireland.
Im not really on about a weekly event maybe once off or annual etc. toronto is a big city and has no mid limit tournaments to speak of. In Ireland we are overloaded with €200-1000 tournaments with structures as good as the wsop.
I have just read ye guys bitching about structures for big games like in Fallsview and cant understand how players dont push these casinos to meet the players needs and give them the structures they deserve.
It's simple. Poker players are essentially second class citizens to the casino. They do not make enough money off of us as opposed to the slot zombies.
With a government monopoly this will be slow to change if ever.
The other thing is if you ever try to deal with Fallsview or any other casino around these parts is no one seems to know whats going on. And My belief is We are just a bunch of Ramblin Gamblin degenerates who would not understand what in the hell they are doing. This is in there minds anyway. lol
This is what i expect from Dalton and his gang of thugs.....
could you sell say mj like this....
give a guy a bag he trasnfer money from his canada account to an online swiss account, then his online swiss to your online swiss, and then your swiss to your own account...?
or is that just stupid....well its stupid but do the laws cover that?
Black Jack and Bacarat were the only card games.
They only allowed craps like 4 yrs ago.
I can only say that anything run by the province is a truck load of cacca.
Im sure players would pay 15-20% reg for a good game. Im not sure if it would even pay to run it but i guess could be worth looking at figures.
But good luck getting a hotel. The place is going to get robbed.
People are still going to be carrying cash to transfer.
How you mean the place is going to get robbed?
Seriously no cash games means no money in the place let them come i mean if this was to be ran i would be looking at over 100 runners. I cant really see it been targeted can you?
Who cares i guess let the cops bust it if they want everyones money is safe online. Thats all i would care about. I mean in order for things to progress there has to be attempts made to get around the law.
All i can hope is that some individuals contact me and we can discuss issues.
I mean the poker site that takes this on has a lot to gain with increasing there profile in a new country. I guess then there would be a kickback for the guys running it with sign ups to the site.
Well, if the cops do come in and I'm sure they will if you host something over 100 people more than a couple of times, then they will take all all the tables and chips. But yes, I guess the money will be safe.
If you can come up with a better satellite structure than fallsview then you're just better off getting a bunch of guys together and play for tournament seats. As a regular I've played a bunch of satellites at fallsview and i think its a decent one table structure since, it takes between 2 to 3 hours per satellite. I know that its a crap shoot but, than again its a one table satellite and the last man standing wins the seat.
Similar idea where there was a "membership" fee.
Hotel is making a profit from you renting the room, game not legal.
This hits the nail on the head. If anyone is 'directly or indirectly' profiting from the presence of the game it becomes illegal.
On top of that, you can try and work around the legalities of it any way you want, but if the profile of it is high enough (i.e. having it in a hotel conference room) then the possibility of getting busted is increased....who's gonna want to be there?
Well if that was the attitude that we had in Ireland then we would be stuck playing home games.
We found a loophole in the law and now have a thriving community. Im sure there is no such loophole in the law here but surely it cant hurt to try.
Poker is of such little interest to politicians that no matter how hard you try they wont improve the legislation. Im sure this applies to both of our countries.
Lets say the guys who run maybe 30 player sattelites have these ever been raided? If so has the money been confiscated & did the players ever get it back?
Nice job. Every letter matters. Apparently one letter counts as like 10 people or something like that. If you have a template, I would glady send one to my MPP.
As for legality, I don't really see how its much different from online poker, minus the hotel benefiting. So if it was at another location. If the person holding the game was in Europe and was handling all the cash and you are here playing, its pretty much online poker.
I have posted this numerous times before. No one has been able to post anything to disprove my statements.
the question is, what if no money is exchanged?
edit: or rather if it was exchanged but in german or swedish accounts....
200 people = $14,000 reg ($550 game with $70 reg included) 2 day event
Hotel is going to charge ???? I dont even have ballpark figures maybe someone could estimate?
20 dealers for 1 day and about 8 for second day will come to about $3000.
Chips & tables etc.....
Guess you could run a side event the secon day for maybe $120 with $20 reg.
At the end of the day there is not going to major profit for anyone without cash games.
Money WILL be exchanged. Illegal.
http://www.pokerforum.ca/f10/free-poker-tournament-all-cure-17823/
Did they apply for a charity licence and operated strictly as a non-profit organization?