Canadian Poker Sites

Like to the U.S., there are no specific laws stating that the game of poker is unlawful for a Canadian poker player to play online. While there are no specific laws surrounding the legality of online poker, the Legislative branch of Ontario’s Government restricts poker site's abilities to advertise their poker sites. This law, which is part of the Consumer Protection Act of 2002, prevents poker sites from targeting Canadian citizens residing in Ontario. This law pertains to both Canadian poker sites, and poker sites that are located around the world. Though it makes it unlawful for poker sites to market directly to Ontario citizens, the law does differentiate between poker sites that are only for play money and those Canadian poker sites that play for real money. Such difference typically is noted by the extension of the poker site, as .net is traditionally the play money poker site, while the .com version traditionally allows poker for real money.

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Online Poker in Canada

Despite the stance by Ontario’s Legislative body, poker is still quite prominent in Canada. Poker can be played both live and online in Canada in every Canadian province. Many nice casinos such as the Fallsview Casino are located in Niagara Fall, Ontario, Canada and allow poker play. Additionally, one of the largest online poker governing bodies - the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is located in Quebec. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission oversees fair play and compliance of the poker sites they license. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission ensures poker sites that are licensed through them are suitable for the nature of their business, that the gaming offered is fair to the players and that the players’ winnings are paid out. Many of these online Canadian poker sites are hosted on their servers.

Deposit Options for Canadian Poker Sites
Canadian poker sites allow for several methods of deposit for poker players to buy in on their poker site of choice. Worth noting, Canadian poker players may not utilize the most common e-wallets to fund their poker accounts, as e-wallets such as NETeller, as well as PayPal are unavailable to them for use in playing poker online. Despite these e-wallets not being an option, Canadian players may utilize e-wallets such as Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, as well as Click2Pay to both fund and cash out their poker player accounts at the poker sites they play.

Additionally, some Canadian poker sites allow deposits using Instant echecks. Instant echecks allow poker players to transfer their funds electronically from the bank to the poker account by way of EFT, which stands for electronic funds transfer. These echecks are essentially an electronically written check, as opposed to a more traditional paper check. Once established, echecks typically clear instantaneously on the deposit side, but can take ten to fifteen days to clear when cashing out winnings from Canadian poker sites to one’s bank account. Credit Cards such as MasterCard and Visa, as well as EntroPay - which is an online VISA card that is prepaid, are additional deposit options on many Canadian poker sites.

Canadian Live Poker Tournaments
Canada is home to a few great live poker tournaments. The Canadian Poker Open, which was once part of the WPT, is played in Calgary at the Stampede Casino. The WPT dropped sponsorship of the Canadian Poker Open, which is now part of the Canadian Poker Tour.

While the World Poker Tour no longer sponsors the Canadian Poker Open, the North American Poker Championships, which is held at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Canada, was one of the bigger stops on the WPT. This event historically has attracted some of the biggest names in poker such as Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Evelyn Ng, and Gavin Smith. Recently, the Fallsview Casino announced they would no longer play host to the North American Poker Championships.

The BC Poker Championships take place annually at the River Rock Casino, which is located a bit outside of Vancouver, British Columbia in a town called Richmond. This event draws well-known poker players such as Lacey Jones, Gave Kaplin, and Tiffany Michelle, as well as Daniel Negreanu, and Gavin Smith.

Many reputable Canadian poker sites are available to choose from for online poker play. Poker is quite popular in Canada, and Canadian poker players have several options for places to play poker online and live.