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Ontario's plan to ban ads for online gaming came under fire Wednesday from experts who said the proposed law would only create headaches for media companies, and that provincially operated slots pose a greater risk to the public.
While falling revenues at the racetrack influenced the proposed legislation, so too did a recent study suggesting young people are flocking to gaming sites, said Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips.
"There was a study that just came out … that showed that internet gaming among young people has quadrupled in the last four years," said Phillips. "I think we need to take a step."
A study released last month by the Responsible Gambling Council suggests 5.5 per cent of people in Ontario aged 18 to 24 gambled online in 2005 — up from 1.4 per cent in 2001.
"We don't allow drug dealers to advertise crack houses, and we won't allow gaming sites that prey on children to advertise either," said Phillips.
The minister argued that online gaming is illegal under the Criminal Code and, therefore, shouldn't be advertised.
While traditional gambling is also illegal under the Criminal Code, provinces have the right to operate lottery games, casinos, and horse racing.
Difficult to enforce, lawyer says
The legality of online gaming sites — usually run from servers based in foreign countries — is much less clear, said intellectual property lawyer Danielle Bush.
"That is a very grey area. There's very little case law on it," said Bush, a partner at the Toronto firm McCarthy-Tetrault.
"You need to get past fundamental issues like where is the activity taking place? Where are the servers located?"
Aside from any legal challenges to the proposed law, Bush predicted the ban will be nearly impossible to enforce.
"I suspect exactly the same situation as you see with pharmaceutical advertising, which is illegal in Canada," she said.
"Yet, you pick up any magazine coming in from the States and there's hundreds of advertisements for prescription drugs in there."
Although Phillips targeted gaming websites as a threat to the public, Dr. Nigel Turner of Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health said government-operated slot machines are the real menace.
"The bulk of the people in treatment for pathological gambling are playing on slot machines," said Turner, a scientist with the centre's problem gaming program.
"There has been a definite increase in the percentage of people going online to play poker, but it still makes up a minority of the people in treatment."
Horse-racing industry partly behind ban
Ontario's horse-racing industry, claiming lost revenues in the face of online gaming, is also "partially" behind the move to ban internet gambling ads in the province, Phillips conceded.
He noted that the ban was first proposed in a private member's bill last spring.
"They are a legal business operating under all the rules. … They've got a good argument."
Whatever the reason behind the proposed legislation, national media companies and broadcasters who do business in Ontario will face a "massive headache" sorting out which ads can run in the province, said Bush. "Unless someone wants to set up a separate system for vetting ads that will be seen in Ontario, all of the national broadcasting services are going to have to go through this exercise."
Phillips, when made aware of the criticisms, insisted that the legislation is a "step forward."
"The long-term solution probably rests with the federal government," Phillips said of combating online gaming.
"We can deal with advertising of illegal internet gaming sites; that's all we can do."
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