The Sequel to Ontario's Attempts to Ban Online Gambling Advertising

The chairman and chief executive officer of the large Canadian-based Woodbine Entertainment Group which provides horse racing for Canadian bettors, David Willmot, did not hold back on his words when addressing the provincial government of Ontario on its proposed ban on Internet gambling advertising.

“Give me a chance to compete on a level field against offshore Internet gambling companies,” said Willmot to the Ontario government, according to a report in the Globe and Mail in Toronto.

According to the paper the proposed legislation before the Ontario legislature to ban advertising for on-line gambling operations, would cripple such businesses. Companies that sell advertising space for the sites would also be adversely affected.

These include four Canadian Football League clubs: Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary and Edmonton and the media outlets which have an agreement for on-field advertising of gambling sites. The CFL as a league ended its agreement with Bowmans Sportsbook and replaced it with an agreement for a non-betting site, partypoker.net.

Willmot told the government, “either throw the online gambling field open for the domestic gambling industry to participate in or enact legislation that will run the foreign-based World Wide Web gambling operations off the track. We’d be happy with either scenario,” he said. “I’m not happy with a status quo scenario. We have laws that make online gambling illegal that are not being enforced because the government can’t touch those operators. Now, if we try to open up a sportsbook or online casino or poker room, the police will be on our doorstep the next day. They know where we are. We support the legislation because online gambling is illegal. We have laws, but they are not being enforced. So, either you change them or you allow us to compete.”

Willmot said that in the end, the moralistic stand adopted by the United States, invoking Wire Act laws for an outright prohibition of online gaming, is the wrong course to take. “The gaming genie is out of the bottle. Only the United States is trying to make it a moral issue.”

Back to Lastest Gambling News
Back to Gambling News Archive
Back to Gambling News - October 2006 Archive