Canadian gaming illegal?

Today, nearly every nation or state grants some sort of gambling franchise, usually in the name of revenue enhancement, i.e., cash. With the police cracking down on illegal rivals, these gambling monopolies are usually pretty lucrative for everyone involved. In Canada, though, the authors of a new report believe that Ontario’s state-sanctioned gaming industry may be illegal.

From CBC News:

A federal study suggests Ontario’s casinos may be illegal and advises that a public inquiry be held into Canada’s $13-billion gambling industry.

The study was done for the Law Commission of Canada, an agency that advises Parliament. The wide-ranging report questions how gambling went from being illegal in 1985 to being a multibillion-dollar industry today.

The lead author, criminologist Colin Campbell, said that what Ontario has done is particularly troubling. The province pays American companies to run its casinos, although the Criminal Code gives exemptions only to charities and governments.

Last year, American companies made $67 million while running Casino Rama, Casino Windsor, Great Blue Heron and two more casinos in Niagara Falls.

Campbell said the province’s own lawyers told gaming authorities back in 1996 that they were breaking the law when the authorities commissioned a report asking whether the current casino structure was legal.

“The Ontario Lottery Corporation was less than pleased [with the first report] and essentially dismissed it, chose to ignore it,” said Campbell.

CBC Toronto - Ontario casinos could be illegal: study

Of course, a spokesperson for the Ontario regulatory body confidently stated that he was not fronting for an ongoing criminal conspiracy and that provincial gaming was all on the up-and-up.

The biggest fallout from this report has been a call for a comprehensive study of the Canadian gaming industry, much like Britain’s Budd report or the American National Gambling Impact Study Commission.