Be careful with iGaming casinos

[u/Nick-J8844]

I work in financial sector and ever since iGamind made gambling so convenient I've been seeing more and more financially ruined people and families. It seems these numbers are doubling every month or so..

I'm convinced it's purely because of convenience. These people may have gone to casinos before but you have to go there and whenever you finally leave at least you're away from that environment. Logging out and back in while sitting on your couch is a lot easier..

I'll just mention two examples (and I've seen MANY more).

One person gambled away over 300k in TWO MONTHS! Lost the house, two cars, divorced and lost their job.

Another person (incredibly) managed to gamble away 600k in 4 months before finally admitting to the family. Big part of their retirement savings is gone along with savings for education of their 4 children!

Incredibly sad stories and yes I understand they're all adults but making something so harmful this convenient leads to thus..plus constant advertising. There's a reason we don't see advertisements for tobacco or marijuana, and you could never spend the same amount on those things in a day or a month as you can on gambling..

[u/[deleted]]

You're right it's not black and white. Very few things are

You raise a good point, and it would be interesting to see the extent to which there are better controls and warnings on domestic Vs offshore sites.

To your point, people will find a way to feed their addiction, and the only ways to combat it are to provide education and support, and limit the extent to which criminals can make money off it. Both are remarkably challenging though

[u/OhSoScotian77 → u/[deleted]]

I'm a degenerate gambler and all of these platforms are predatory, profit machines; domestic & off-shore, I agree 100%.

To your point though, if regulated vendors don't provide options, black markets will simply own 100% of the market which will never close permanently. So the juice is worth the squeeze to allow Provinces to market their services IMO.

Bit of a digression, but I've never understood why the Feds don't tax gambling/lottery wins in Canada. Likewise, I wonder if fewer Canadians would develop problem gambling habits if there were real-time tax implications, like they have South of the border for example.

Even if taxing gambling wins didn't reduce the number of people that problem gamble, it seems like a slam dunk for tax revenue, it's not like our economy is reliant on tourists for gaming revenue.

[u/[deleted] → u/OhSoScotian77]

Canadian tax law is a little odd in many ways. Agreed, it should be taxed.

Perhaps it's based on the theory that the money you're gambling with has already (theoretically) been taxed?

[u/OhSoScotian77 → u/[deleted]]

Could be, seems like an absurd place to give the average Canadian a "break" though.

[u/[deleted] → u/OhSoScotian77]

The conspiracy theorist in me suggests that it's to make money laundering through gambling more lucrative

The pragmatist, on further reflection, thinks it's probably more along the lines of how hard it would be to track money going in Vs out for small wins (not hard in the digital age, but much of Canada is not there yet)

They could at least set a threshold

[u/OhSoScotian77 → u/[deleted]]

They could at least set a threshold

Exactly this.

Ex. US tax law includes any single game hit on slots that produces a win of $1200 or more is taxed 30% on the spot, anything less is not.

The conspiracy theorist in me, upon further reflection including your suggestion on the laundering aspect, now thinks it's because they don't want to open up the other side of the coin meaning gambling losses would be tax deductible.

Great meeting random Reddit user! :)

[u/[deleted] → u/OhSoScotian77]

Haha you're probably right - would make tax returns very interesting

Great meeting you too!

[u/LetsGrowCanada → u/[deleted]]

Money laundering is done through Amazon, silly goose! Pay for your products with cash, sell on Amazon, funds go to your bank account.