Quebec shuts doors on international online gambling, opens window for Amaya

The Canadian province of Quebec plans to implement IP-blocking of internationally licensed online gambling sites, unless those sites obtain waivers from the provincial gambling regulator.

Quebec’s Finance Minister Carlos Leitäo dropped his province’s 2015-16 budget plan on Thursday, which includes changes to the Consumer Protection Act and laws governing gambling. The government plans to introduce a legislative amendment that would require the province’s internet service providers to block “illegal” online gambling sites.

This “illegal website filtering measure” is intended to boost revenue at Espace-jeux, the online gambling site of provincial monopoly Loto-Quebec. The site has struggled to gain headway against internationally licensed sites, capturing only 10% of the province’s estimated $250m online market. The government expects to reap an additional $13.5m in the first year that IP-blocking is implemented and an additional $27m in each year that follows.

The first mention of these blocking plans came in November when Leitäo said he’d discussed the matter with his counterpart in Ontario, with the idea of eventually instituting a Canada-wide blocking program. However, a nationwide system would require federal politicians to revise Canada’s Criminal Code.