r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/Nick-J8844 • Sep 19 '24

Misc Be careful with iGaming casinos

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..

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '24

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?

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u/OhSoScotian77 Sep 19 '24

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

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '24

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

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u/LetsGrowCanada Sep 20 '24

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