On the 27th of August, 2021, Canada’s Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act received Royal Assent, which has led to a complete overhaul of the legal landscape for online betting and gambling. The law itself was focused on empowering each individual province and territory, allowing them to regulate themselves. With India’s gambling laws being similar to what Canada’s were before the safe and regulated sports betting act, would India be looking to Canada to see how their new implementation fares?
As the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act was passed into law, provinces in Canada elected to legalize single-game betting, as beforehand, Canadians could only legally bet on provincial lotteries, but had to make use of Parlays. This decision from many provinces in Canada marked the beginning of the new legal aspect of online gambling. The goal of this legal overhaul, while rooted in providing provinces with greater autonomy, was to keep gambling money in Canada.
This concept is quite interesting. As it stands, much of the gambling money in Canada is being siphoned out of the country, either via offshore bookmakers or through illegal Canadian sportsbooks. What is interesting about this is that it sounds a lot like the gambling situation that is currently in place in India.
As it stands, online gambling operations, based within India are forbidden, online betting is not considered illegal, as there is no law that explicitly states that placing a bet on an offshore betting site is illegal. What this in turn means is that there is a huge number of Indians betting online, with these bookmakers being the ones to benefit the most from this fact.
If the Indian government was able to tax a percentage of the money that was spent on gambling by Indians each year through the implementation of a licensing system, the country would benefit hugely, receiving an injection of income that could be used for a number of different things. Gambling addiction is the first thing that comes to mind, but other areas of the country could also be put in focus.
Moving back to Canada, the province by province approach is largely based on the experimental sports betting legislation that was implemented in the US. Here, some states legalized sports betting, with a handful of others showing interest in setting up legal online sports betting infrastructure. When it comes to Canada, it’s clear that legal sports betting in Ontario lead the way, with the province set to launch on the 4th of April 2022. No other Canadian provinces have mentioned that they will be ready to launch any time soon.
What’s clear is that it is possible for India to potentially benefit from the same structure that has been implemented in Canada and the US. India is one of the most significant gambling markets in the world. If a percentage of the income from online betting and gambling would reach the Indian government, there would be a lot of opportunities to use it in a productive way.
source https://nrinews24x7.com/%ef%bf%bccould-india-follow-canadas-lead-from-a-legal-sports-betting-perspective/
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