Living in Toronto means that you’re very close to our North American neighbour, the United States. In fact, you can drive to Rochester, Detroit, and Buffalo within a few hours of setting off from here, and yet living either side of the border offers a very different experience in many regards. You just need to look at Toronto and Detroit to see that they are as different as major cities as they are close in geographical proximity.
One aspect of entertainment which has always been distinctly different between Canada and the US is gambling, specifically online gambling. Strangely enough, the US is famed for its mega-casinos and is commonly associated with gambling, while Canada isn’t widely thought of as a place to play casino games, and yet the truth proves to be quite the opposite.
Open in Canada vs Opening in the US
Despite Las Vegas being hailed as the pinnacle of gambling down south, the activity itself was widely outlawed in the US. Over the last couple of decades, particularly in Europe, online gambling has become a massive and much-enjoyed entertainment medium, but in the US, states were shut off from cashing in on the innovative products.
Now, however, things are changing, with the US Supreme Court’s appeal of PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) effectively allowing each state to open and regulate its own scene for online gaming. Now, online gambling (also known as iGaming) is fully available in Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Down south, people have to wait for their state governments to open up an iGaming scene. In contrast, in Canada, online gambling has been widely available since big-name brands realized how effective an internet service in this industry can be. This has allowed any brand that can find a way to appeal to Canadians to do so, creating a customer-friendly and very competitive space – which forces brands to keep on improving.
Unregulated Canada vs Regulated US
Being so open, Canada does invite a few potential problems for its players. Primarily, being so relaxed, any game creator or platform can, in theory, offer iGaming in the country without recourse if something goes wrong. As such, Canadian gamblers have had to wise-up quickly to ensure that they enjoy a safe experience online.
To ensure a fair, safe, and expansive gambling experience, Canadians need to look for the preferred payment methods, such as Instadebit, iDebit, and Interac, trusted game providers like Play’N Go, Microgaming, Red Tiger, and NetEnt, and a respected governing body, such as the UKGC or MGA. Sites that have become the most popular up here, such as Wildz, tick all of these boxes, setting the bar for others to try to beat, further enhancing the strength of the iGaming scene in Canada.
For the nation, the US benefits a great deal from having a regulated space as each state gets to cherry-pick brands and reap the associated taxes. However, US players suffer by comparison to players in other jurisdictions because the competition isn’t as fierce, with their regulatory bodies selecting which sites they can use. As such, if too few brands are allowed in, the scene can stagnate, failing to seek bigger and better ways to appeal to its localized user base.
In a nutshell, those are the differences. But as things change, expect to see the two begin to meet somewhere in the middle.
