In April of 2022, Ontario made use of Canada’s new iGaming laws, to legalize the market in its provincial borders. The Alcohol and Gambling Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is largely responsible for upholding a legitimate, reputable, and safe market in the province.
As online gambling’s legality is relatively new in the province, many folks wonder how the AGCO maintains and promotes responsible gambling. In this article, we would like to take a look at the steps that the Commission has taken to ensure a safe and reliable industry.
Regulatory Framework
If there is to be a safe and reliable industry, the government must establish a regulatory framework. In other words, it is up to the Ontarian provincial government to place certain rules and regulations in effect, that will ensure a healthy and beneficial gambling industry, rather than an exploitive one.
Indeed, the Ontario government has done an excellent job of ensuring that online gambling in the province is done safely and responsibly. Online casinos have shown that they will do their best to ensure player and customer safety, which is why the AGCO allows them to operate inside the city.
But, what does it mean for a website to be safe and secure? That is an important question that every online gambler must ask themselves. Let’s take a look at a few standards that online casinos need to meet, in order to be allowed to operate within Ontario.
Customer Safety
When discussing online gambling, there are two major safety concerns that need to be dealt with: cyber safety and gambling safety. In this section, we would like to explore how online casinos like Daily Spins take precautions to ensure that their customers are safe, both when they are gambling, and when they are simply using the web.
● Cyber Safety
With advancements of digital technology and computer science, it is not surprising that cybercrime is on the rise, and will likely continue to grow. That means that online businesses must step up their game in protecting their customers. This is what we mean by cyber safety.
Online casinos must do their best to ensure that their customers are safe when they are using their services. To do this, they incorporate multi-factor authentication and digital encryption. Of course, there are other methods to ensure safety, but the two mentioned are the most popular.
● Gambling Safety
The other safety issue concerns the act of gambling itself. In other words, we are looking at websites who do their best to promote responsible gambling, who take steps to prevent problem gambling, and who can assure both the AGCO and the customers that their games are 100% luck-based, and not rigged.
In order to discover whether a website is safe, licensing companies must take a look at what steps they take to promote responsible gambling. It can be through the promotion of organizations that focus on helping to prevent compulsive gambling, or it could be through the use of machine learning software that detects problem gambling.
Then, there is the matter of testing the individual games to ensure that they use Random Number Generator software, and are not rigged in favor of the casino. Once these boxes have been ticked, the AGCO approves the gambling site, and customers can be sure that the casino is safe and secure.
What Challenges do Regulators Face?
From the way we’ve talked about regulation, some may have come to the conclusion that it is simple and easy. However, this is one of those things that is easier said than done. Indeed, there is a lot of work that goes into regulating online gambling.
For one, online casinos tend to feature a vast number of games. More often than not, there are hundreds of slots, and some can get to as many as thousands. Then there is also the matter of table games, the live casino option, and more. The AGCO has to make sure that each and every one of these games is up-to-par.
There is also the matter of ever-advancing technology. Advancements in tech have done a lot of good. They’ve improved workout regiments and have brought us closer together online. However, in the online gambling sector, technology is advancing quite fast, and the licensing organizations must keep up with everything. Though it may sound simple, it is quite harder than it seems.
The good news is that; the same tech can be used as a regulatory tool. For example, Artificial Intelligence is a hot button issue right now. But, already some online casinos have incorporated AI software as a tool to detect compulsive gambling, and flag it as a problem. The same basic principle can be used to detect suspicious activity such as hacking or identity theft.
Has a Legal iGaming Market Brought Benefits?
Opposition to legalizing iGaming certainly exists. Indeed, there are quite a few vocal people who claim that online casinos should never have been legal. They don’t see how legalizing iGaming could benefit Vancouver, Ontario, or more broadly Canada.
The truth is that Ontario has already seen some pretty great benefits from online gambling. In just one year, the Canadian government collected over $1 billion in national tax, just from the Ontario gambling industry alone. That doesn’t even take into account the money gained from online sports betting.
It doesn’t stop there, however. The success of the iGaming industry has also resulted in several hundred job positions opening throughout the province. The best part about it is that a study has determined that the average position in iGaming pay more than similar positions in other sectors.
There is also the matter of safety. With online casinos legal and regulated, customers can feel safe. After all, with cybercrime on the rise, many are worried about their safety. We’ve seen time and time again that prohibition doesn’t work, and people will do what they want. It is, therefore, much better to legalize and regulate an already successful industry, and ensure that those involved are safe and in good hands.