Players in Canada are currently free to play at any online poker site that will accept them as a player. As long as a player is not looking to license a skin and go into the online poker business for themselves, they will have no legal issues with online poker in Canada. Due to the influx of players from the United States, added with the already healthy Canadian poker market sites that allow Canadian players often have high traffic and great services to offer.
Canadian Poker sites for USA Players
Canada has become a destination for many poker players. People who have had their poker playing careers come to a halt through new legislation and the alteration of existing legal codes often consider a move to Canada, in addition to Asia, and Europe as possible destinations in order to continue their play. Some of these players have made permanent moves, while others have found other ways to become temporary residents of Canada, like, applying for a student visa and opening a Canadian bank account.
Canada is usually the destination choice of players that want to stay close to the USA, players that are looking at the other aspects, such as cost of living tend to choose other beautiful locations; Asia for instance.
It would stand to reason, then, that online poker in Canada is legal. Like seemingly all of the legislation regarding online poker and gambling today, this is not 100% clear. A 1985 amendment to the Criminal Code gave the responsibility for regulating computerized forms of gambling to individual provinces and their gaming commissions. While some provinces have placed restrictions on the use of online casinos, to date, no restrictions have been placed on online poker play.
To further muddy the legal waters, it is technically illegal for an online provider to offer service to Canadians if the provider is not a provincial operator. However, since international providers are not subject to Canadian laws, this is practically impossible to prosecute. Furthermore, these laws apply to the business owner and not the customer.
Online Poker Sites for Canadian Players
Poker Stars: Poker Stars has been in business for a long time, and has been one of the largest, if not the largest, online poker room in the world for most of that time. As a result, they have refined software, a huge player base, a well developed tournament schedule and many successful promotions. They offer new deposit bonuses for account creation, and boast the most satellite tournaments for major events anywhere. For both tournament and ring play, Poker Stars is an extremely solid offering for Canadian players.
888 Poker: 888 Poker offers some of the most refined software on the market. In business for over a decade, 888 Poker used to have a reputation for awful software. They have completely remedied this issue, and offer some of the most option rich software around. Players can even play in 3D! Their deposit bonuses are more generous than most, though they do take some time to clear. Traffic is completely sufficient to support their game offerings, and the level of play is typically softer than some of the other major sites. For Canadians who are new to the world of online poker, or who prefer ring games for their play, 888 Poker is a great choice.
Bovada Poker: Bovada Poker offers fantastic deposit bonuses to new players, and a variety of options for additional rewards, including bad beat jackpots and royal flush bonuses. Their software offers a unique benefit as well, depending on a player’s approach to the game of poker. At Bovada, poker tables are anonymous, meaning that data mining applications such as Hold’em Tracker are practically useless. For Canadians who prefer to play 12 tables at a time and use these, this is a bad thing. For everyone else, this makes Bovada an attractive option.
