[MacGrad]

The province of Ontario is planning to debate a bill that would make it illegal to ADVERTISE any free or "pay-to-play" internet gambling sites on tv, radio, or other media.

While this may affect new signups a little bit, and have very little effect on current players, there is some major fallout from this:

Say goodbye to watching poker on TV -- according to some reports, there is only one poker telecast that isn't sponsored by an online gaming company.

[babujit1]

Say good buy to all sports broadcasts that have any adds in the arena or stadium that show a gambling site, that isn't government owned.

Which makes this law if it were to go through unenforcable and completely idiotic.

Have to keep the government monopoly on gampling intact afterall.
Long live lotteries, horce racing, and slot machines . At least those things favour the people playing, afterall they have the peoples interest at heart right.

Hipocrits all

[imthatguy]

I think you'll just see a shift, and potentially more government involvement. My guess is that they'll pick up some of the advertising slack (they're already aggressively advertising for the WPT @ Fallsview) and long term, I wouldn't be surprised to see them get in on the action. 2 years tops and you'll be able to bet Pro-line online as well as lose your stack on the OLG's poker tables.

[bigjohn]

They had this going in the US, the sites just set up a .net non-gambling web page to deviate from this rule

[imthatguy]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

They had this going in the US, the sites just set up a .net non-gambling web page to deviate from this rule

We're already at that point here, as far as I know, I've only ever seen spots with the .net nomenclature.

[vrecksler]

Move West my Eastern countrymen, on the shores of the Pacific we are quite liberal on most issues.

[MacGrad]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

They had this going in the US, the sites just set up a .net non-gambling web page to deviate from this rule

Incorrect -- take a look at the OP.

The bill will ban advertising for the FREE sites as well, not just the Pay sites. Essentially, this is the OLGC claiming rights to every gambling dollar in Ontario, since they own/regulate the lotteries, the horse tracks, and most of the casinos. In fact, the only casino around southern Ontario that is not OLGC-owned is Brantford.

And babujit: it is completely enforceable and possible, thanks to technology. Have you seen those annoying "virtual ads" that they put on the field during NFL games? They'll either use that technology to get around the "billboard in a stadium" problem, or they'll "blur/fuzz" it out.

[babujit1]

Originally Posted by MacGrad

Incorrect -- take a look at the OP.

The bill will ban advertising for the FREE sites as well, not just the Pay sites. Essentially, this is the OLGC claiming rights to every gambling dollar in Ontario, since they own/regulate the lotteries, the horse tracks, and most of the casinos. In fact, the only casino around southern Ontario that is not OLGC-owned is Brantford.

And babujit: it is completely enforceable and possible, thanks to technology. Have you seen those annoying "virtual ads" that they put on the field during NFL games? They'll either use that technology to get around the "billboard in a stadium" problem, or they'll "blur/fuzz" it out.

So when some ontario team is skating by the boards in vancouver and the board has sosocasino.net it will block that out?
If it can't does that mean HNIC is on the hook for the fine and or jail time.
That would be funny since its on the gov. owned station.

[MacGrad]

Originally Posted by babujit1

So when some ontario team is skating by the boards in vancouver and the board has sosocasino.net it will block that out?
If it can't does that mean HNIC is on the hook for the fine and or jail time.
That would be funny since its on the gov. owned station.

I just report the news -- I can't tell you what they'll do in every situation.

My opinion? If the boards advertise a B&M casino (ie. Fallsview, Montreal), then it'll be fine. If it's PokerStars or UB, it'll be eliminated.

It's not just about that, though... this has an effect on SportsNet, TSN, and Score programming. Since all three have poker shows that are sponsored by online sites (ie. Today's WPT broadcast is brought to you by...), those shows will not be offered in Ontario, although other provinces will still be able to watch.

[bigjohn]

Wow!! So much for my liberal Canadian Brothers to the north :/. So much for going up north to gamble if the entire North America bans poker