Canadian Senator Catches Illegal Online Gambling Bill Attachment

Governments have a funny way about them. They take ordinary laws that are going to be passed, slip in a clause or two, and come away with laws about things that have nothing to do with the original Bill.

Enter Liberal Senator George Baker from Canada. He brought one of these such clauses to the forefront and received assurance that the wording would be changed to keep online gambling legal in Canada.

There is a big market for internet gambling in Canada. Online poker is huge. This Bill will end that, and that has not been brought up by anyone," said Baker.

The Bill he is referring to is aimed at updating bookmaking laws. The way that is proposed to do that is to remove Criminal Code references to "telephone" and "telegraph".

Being that the new law was unclear as to how it was going to affect online gambling, Baker felt there needed to be clarification.

The U.S. government, last year, pulled off a similar move to the one that was being attempted in Canada. The only difference is last year, nobody was able to catch the sly move before it was pushed into law.

The next step is the Senate recommending that the Commons make an amendment to the Bill, specifically stating that offshore based gambling will remain legal in Canada.

December 11, 2007
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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