CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Danielle Bush and Matthew Kelleher, McCarthy Tétrault LLP
(b) the Société des loteries du Québec (“ Loto- Québec ”), a provincial government agent, (i) operates the casinos located in Quebec, and (ii) regulates traditional lotteries and bingo as well as gaming machines located inside casinos. • Saskatchewan: (a) the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Author- ity (SLGA); and (b) the Indigenous Gaming Regulators (IGR), which licenses and regulates on-reserve chari- table gaming activities of the First Nations that have designated IGR as their regulator through Band Council Resolutions. • Yukon Territory: (a) the Professional Licensing & Regulatory Affairs Branch of the Department of Community Ser- vices. 4.2 Regulatory Approach Given that all gambling services must be provided directly or indirectly by a government entity, the regu- latory approach is generally highly prescriptive. Having said that, the approach taken by the AGCO in Ontario focuses on general standards as opposed to detailed prescriptive requirements. Furthermore, it must be remembered that all private gaming companies must be treated as contractors to a government entity and so all are required to enter into agreements with the relevant Provincial Gaming Operator. Those agree- ments are very lengthy and highly restrictive, result- ing, practically speaking, in two layers of regulation. 4.3 Types of Licences Gambling in Canada is conducted and managed by Provincial Gaming Operators pursuant to Section 207 of the Criminal Code. With very limited exceptions such as those for charities and local fairs, no person other than a provincial government is legally permitted to supply gambling facilities or services in Canada. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all provinces require registration of any person operating a “gaming site” or supplying goods or services for use in the operation of gambling facilities and the provision of gaming ser- vices by the province. As the provincial governments must contract out the vast majority of such services, in reality this is the “licensing” scheme in Canada.
Any company that wishes to supply gambling facilities may approach a provincial government with a propos- al for a gambling facility. Even if such a proposal was accepted, the government would, by law, be required to conduct and manage the gambling activity, with the proponent of the plan acting as the operator or service provider under contract with the government. There is no substantive difference in the treatment of land-based and online gaming anywhere in Canada other than Ontario. In provinces other than Ontario, companies that offer online gaming products are only permitted to supply their products to the applicable provincial government operator, which will then pro- vide the product to consumers in its jurisdiction. The operators in these cases do not have any communica- tion with consumers and their brands do not appear on the products being provided by the applicable Pro- vincial Gaming Operator. Ontario, on the other hand, has opened its online gaming market to private operators. While the AGCO continues as the regulator of all gaming activities of any nature in the province, iGO is the legal conduc- tor and manager of all online gaming in the province that is not provided directly by the OLG. iGO is, for all intents and purposes, a conduit through which pri- vate gaming operators supply their gaming products and services to individuals located in Ontario. Each operator must enter into an operating agreement with iGO (the “Operating Agreement”) but will otherwise deal directly with Ontario players on a website run by the operator that is dedicated to Ontario play. Online gaming services must comply with the AGCO iGaming Standards and the operator must be in compliance with all the terms of the Operating Agreement. Any suppliers of products or services to an online gaming operator with an Ontario registration must be registered in Ontario as a gaming-related supplier (GRS). GRS companies are not required to enter into an agreement with iGO but will otherwise have to go through the same application process as operators. Notable exceptions to the registration requirement for GRSs at this time are affiliates and payment service providers.
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