Ontario moves to ban online gambling ads

ONTARIO – As reported by the Toronto Star: "We've all seen the ads on television or heard them on the radio: A poker 'star' boasts of his conquests and invites us to visit a website where we can gamble with play money.

"…But upon making the visit, we discover connections to the real thing: a website where we can lay down bets for hard cash, or credit.

"It is through such manoeuvring that the website operators continue to find ways to attract new customers, notwithstanding the fact that gambling on the Internet, or advertising of same, is strictly illegal in Canada.

"Accordingly, the provincial government plans to move to close the loopholes with a blanket ban on advertising of Internet gambling, direct or indirect.

"The ban will be part of an omnibus consumer protection bill to be introduced tomorrow by Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips.

"…But, of course, the province has another reason to curb Internet gambling: It is cutting deeply into the government's share of the take from legal gambling at the casinos and race tracks…"

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