The Canadian nation and its ten provinces and several territories offer a full range of gambling opportunities. Lottery games operated by the government are available in all ten provinces, Yukon Territory, and the North West Territories. (The new Nunavut Territory has not yet developed its own lottery.) Charity gaming is also pervasive. Pari-mutuel horse-race betting (on-track, intertrack, and/or offtrack) is permitted in all jurisdictions, and casino-style gaming is legal in most of the provinces and Yukon Territory. All the provinces except British Columbia have video gaming available in noncasino settings, such as bars and hotels.
The lotteries and casino gaming in Canada developed during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Initially, casinos were either temporary or small organizations operated on behalf of charities or provincial exhibitions. (One exception was the seasonal casino called Diamond Tooth Gerties in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, in 1970.) The nature of casino gaming changed when Manitoba decided to consolidate many small operations and open a permanent gaming hall in the ballroom facilities of the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg in 1990. Quasi-commercial casinos along the order of ones found in the United States soon were authorized in Quebec. Casino du Montreal opened in 1993, and Casino Charlevoix in 1994. Ontario licensed a casino for Windsor in 1994 and one at Niagara Falls in 1997. Casinos were opened in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia in 1995. In all cases, the provincial governments “own” the casinos; management and operations in some cases are by regular government employees (Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) or by private companies (Ontario, Nova Scotia).
The Native Americans (First Nations) of Canada also are involved in numerous gaming facilities either as owners, operators, or beneficiaries of operations. The initial First Nation casino of considerable size is the Casino Rama facility at Orilla, Ontario.
By the middle of the 1990s, Canadian provinces gained C$4.7 billion in revenue from gambling in 1995, and charities and other operators won perhaps another billion dollars. The development of Canadian gambling into a multi-billion-dollar business, albeit mostly controlled and operated by provincial governments, followed a major change in the national law in 1969. Prior to that time, most gambling had been prohibited. The laws of Canada have incorporated the common law of England, and without positive legislation passed by the national parliament, the laws of England at the time of national confederation in 1867 remain in force. Hence, the first Canadian law on gambling is traced back to a 1338 statute passed because Edward III feared that his military was wasting valuable training time on idle pursuits, including “dice games.” All games and contests except those involving archery were banned. The prohibition on the use of dice in gambling remained in place in Canada until 1999. It was eliminated in England and Scotland in 1968.
The English laws, which generally eliminated most gaming, were enacted into the statutory law of Canada when the first Criminal Code was passed into law in 1892. For the last century and a decade, that statutory prohibition on gambling has been nibbled away at by lawmakers. First in 1900, the code was amended to permit charitable raffles with small prizes. In 1910, on-track horse-race betting was allowed. It has remained legal with the exception of a short period during World War I. A 1922 statute specifically banned the use of dice in games, a ban that had never been lifted out of the common law. Limits on various other games of chance were relaxed in 1925 for fund-raising events at agriculture fairs.
In the 1950s, a parliamentary committee studied the gambling restrictions and in 1956, issued a report recommending major changes. These, however, did not come to pass for over a decade.
Financial commitments rising out of the Montreal World’s Fair of 1967 provided legislative support for opening up more gaming opportunities for government budget makers. The fact that south of the border, the states of New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey legalized lotteries added to the support. This support led to the passage of the Criminal Code Amendments of 1969, providing the major breakthrough for the development of a modern gambling industry in Canada. The 1969 law added a new Section 190 to the Criminal Code that allowed the provincial governments and the national government to conduct and manage a “lottery scheme.” Several provinces could also operate lotteries together. Provinces were permitted to license charitable, religious, or exhibition and fair organizations and bona fide social clubs to conduct lottery schemes. The concept of lottery schemes soon came to encompass many casino-type games. Section 190 repeated the ban on the use of dice in games, however, and also prohibited betting on single sports events. Gaming machines were allowed only if the provincial governments operated the machines.
Lotteries were quickly established in the provinces and territories. The national government also utilized a lottery to underwrite the costs of the Montreal Olympics in 1976. A national sports lottery funded the winter Olympic Games at Calgary in 1988. In 1985, the provinces rejected the competition of the federal games. In exchange for $100 million from the provincial lotteries (enough money to fund the debt from the 1988 games), the federal government agreed to a law relinquishing its authority to operate any gambling at all. Present policy on gambling is held entirely in the hands of provincial governments and in territorial legislatures. One area of gambling has developed without benefit of a clear jurisdictional framework, however. Policy on affairs regarding the First Nations is still held in the hands of federal authorities, yet gambling policy is not a matter for federal law. To date, the bands of First Nations have had to resolve their rights to have gambling operations on an ad hoc basis in consultation with provincial authorities.
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