Is Canada planning on replacing the maple leaf on its flag with a branch of poison ivy? It’s not yet clear how Canada’s ruling Conservative party intends to apply its new expanded criminal code definition of “serious crimes” to the online gaming sector. Will internationally licensed gaming companies operating out of the UK, like Paddy Power or Ladbrokes, which all accept Canadian customers, be liable for prosecution under these new regulations?
It’s hard to believe that Canadian officials would ask their UK counterparts to extradite these gaming companies’ executives, as extradition traditionally requires the criminal activity in question to be illegal in both jurisdictions, but Canada’s Conservatives don’t always factor logic into their decision making. For example, they just announced plans to spend billions on new prisons, despite the fact that Canada’s crime rate has been falling for some time. Or do they plan on filling these empty cells with gaming execs? What about companies that advertise with or offer support services to gaming companies?
The stated motive behind the Tories ‘get tough’ stance is to inhibit the activities of organized crime, but considering that their new definition of ‘serious crime’ theoretically includes a three-person poker game, just who is their real target here? Is this a back-door ploy to nibble away at the established treaty rights of Canadian native groups, some of whom have built thriving legal businesses connected to the online gaming sector? Or, given the recent entry of provincial governments into the online gaming biz, is this an effort to choke out international competition? Could Canada really be so stupid as to follow the lead of other countries that bastardized their criminal justice system for protectionist aims, undermining centuries of jurisprudence in the process?
Canada has built a favorable international reputation that is eclipsed by only three other nations, but that shining reputation will be irrevocably tarnished if the government continues enacting such draconian legislation. They should also recognize that they are not the only nation with surplus prison cells. It would be interesting to view their reaction if the UK Tories decided to yank a few Canadian bank execs off a plane in Heathrow, all because UK residents were allowed to open accounts with Canadian financial institutions and trade on stocks not available from the exchanges in their home territory.
To read a gaming lawyer’s perspective on the new Canadian regulations, click here.
