A coalition of Canadian games agencies expects an application to prevent a high -seas betting site from operating in Manitoba establishes a precedent in the fight against illegal online game.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries is looking for a court order to prohibit the game at the high seas Bodog for operating or advertising in the province.
The Crown Corporation Alaga in a request submitted to the King Court Bank of Manitoba last week that the Bodog.eu website and its “free game” sister, Bodog.net, are violating the law by offering their services In Manitoba, where liquor and lotteries have exclusive authority over the game.
“Bodog illegal activities are diverting customers in Manitoba away from MBLL’s legitimate operations,” he said, referring to Playnow.com, their online game platform. “The significant income that would otherwise be generated by MBLL have diverted to Bodog.”
The Crown Corporation said in an email that presented the court order on behalf of the Canadian lottery coalition, a defense group whose membership is composed of provincial games corporations in BC, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Atlántico Canada and Manitoba.
Will Hill, executive director of the coalition, said the court order application is the first for the coalition, which was formed in 2022 to combat the propagation of illegal playing sites.
“There are really two particular goals here,” said Hill. “One, ensuring a court order against an illegal operator within Manitoba, but two, validating the general position of the coalition on the illegal game more widely.”
Hill said he hopes that the case provides the coalition for a judicial interpretation that he can use to reinforce similar efforts to take energetic measures against the illegal game in the jurisdictions of its members.
“They are forced to deal with hundreds of illegal operators,” he said, what complicates “what is a really noble search, frankly. Provincial Lottery Corporations are configured to return 100 percent of their profits to their provinces to benefit to the province priorities “.
Bodog.EU allows players to bet on sporting events and casino games such as Blackjack and Poker. The website says that it accepts players from all over Canada, except for those of the provinces of Quebec and Nueva Scotia.
An affidavit of a digital forensic analyst, presented with the Court’s request, says Bodog announced his “Canadian presence and often published content with Canadian teams and players, including those located in Manitoba”, on social networks.
The application alleges that Bodog promotes its platform through “materially false and deceptive statements”, representing itself as legal, safe and reliable, when it is not.
He said that the coalition asked Bodog twice to stop making the sites accessible in the province, but that the company has refused to comply.
CBC News contacted Bodog, but had not received comments on the presentation of the court before the publication.
Damage reduction, money laundering concerns
The application names as defendants of Bodog Il Nido Ltd. and Sanctum IP Holdings Ltd., which appears as the owner of the Canadian trademark of Bodog. Both companies are based in Antigua and Barbuda.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries says that game sites on the high seas often operate through the “complex corporate structure” and that it cannot determine if other entities are involved in Bodog operations.
Bodog does not appear as one of the certified game sites operators to run in Ontario, the only province with a regulated third party market.
The Canadian lottery coalition says that the data collected by the market data signing H2 Gambling Capital shows the illegal revenues of the chance games online that go to offshore sites such as Bodog increased almost 40 percent from 2020 to 2023, at $ 1.86 billion.
In an affidavit, Hill also cited a new Fentrac report, or the Transaction Analysis and Financial Reports Center in Canada, a Federal Financial Intelligence Unit, which warned about the games of gambling in the high seas that can be used For drug traffickers to wash the income of the sale of the sale of the sale of the sale of the sale of the sale. Fentanil and other opioids.
On Monday, the Manitoba government announced that Liquor & Lotteries Casinos de Manitoba will report suspicious records of transactions to the Fentrac and Winnipeg police to take energetic measures against money laundering.
Spencer Murch, a researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary who specializes in the game and addictive behaviors, said that sites on the high sea put people at risk since they are not obliged to safeguards in their place as Voluntary self -excusion, which allows people to ask to play.
“If we take the reduction in damage to the game online, we must also be serious about enforcing prohibitions in the illegal game on the high seas,” Murch said.
But taking energetic measures in the high -seas sites is just a part of addressing the problem: governments that seek to expand legal play options must prioritize public health on gain generation, he said.
“We believe that it is likely that increasing the game rate online in any province will occur along with the increases in the number of people who experience problems related to the game,” Murch said, citing a recent report from a commission of health experts public
“We must ensure that the income generated by the online game is really compensating for the greatest costs of addressing game problems.”
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries has submitted a request to prevent the game games website from working in the province. Crown Corporation says that he is doing it in the name of a coalition of provincial games agencies that wish to take energetic measures against illegal sites.
