Bovada has become a familiar name in the U.S. due to state gambling regulators’ enforcement action against the offshore operator. Up in Canada, its sister site Bodog has been forced out of one province by a landmark court decision.
While in the U.S., every week seems to bring news of a new cease-and-desist letter from a state to an unauthorized casino, sportsbook, sweepstakes site or social casino, such actions are not as common in Canada. Even less common is litigation from gambling entities, but Manitoba, with the support of other Canadian provincial governments’ gaming entities, took an unprecedented step this year.
In late May, a judge granted Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries’ (MBLL) application for a permanent injunction against Antigua and Barbuda-based Bodog. Judge Jeffrey Harris ordered Bodog’s operators, affiliates, employees and representatives to stop operating or advertising in ways “accessible to Manitobans” and told Bodog to implement geoblocking technology to cut off Manitoban access to its real-money site bodog.eu.
Time to muzzle up
In his written reasoning for the decision, which was provided to SBC Americas on Thursday ahead of being made publicly available, Harris noted that Bodog’s gambling operations and advertising in the province violated the Criminal Code, the Competition Act and the Trademarks Act and also “inflict[ed] new and ever-increasing and incalculable harm on MBLL each day.”
Outside of Ontario, which is Canada’s only open-market regulated online gambling jurisdiction, all online casinos and sportsbooks other than the government-run gambling sites operate in what is referred to as the gray market. In Manitoba, the only legally recognized and authorized online gambling platform is the MBLL’s PlayNow.
But Bodog, which has a shared history of common ownership and operational ties with Bovada, continues to take gamblers’ money in almost all provinces.
Harris found that Bodog had been operating two websites in Manitoba: the play-for-cash bodog.eu and a bodog.net platform that the operator describes as “free play for amusement purposes only” but which also serves neatly as brand recognition and advertising for its real-money site. Manitobans had been able to access bodog.eu, register, deposit funds from a Canadian bank account and gamble away.
Harris also took issue with how Bodog “advertises itself as a ‘legal online casino in Canada’ and says that ‘it is one of the safest places to gamble online'” in Canada.
Ultimately, he determined that Bodog’s ongoing operation in Manitoba “inflicts new and ever-increasing and incalculable harm on MBLL each day” as it takes revenue, creates consumer confusion about its legitimacy and “diminishes the goodwill associated with the MBLL.”
Going quietly into the night
MBLL officials stated that they had tried on multiple occasions to contact Bodog before filing the injunction application, to no avail. Harris said that as Bodog did not respond to previous communication efforts or to a court summons, he granted the permanent injunction as there was “no adequate alternative remedy that would protect MBLL from the ongoing harm created by Bodog’s activities.
In between Harris’ May 26 verdict and his reasoning dated June 26 and provided to SBC Americas on July 3, Bodog silently added Manitoba to its list of restricted provinces in Canada, alongside Quebec and Nova Scotia.
That’s a similar pattern we have seen from its sibling Bovada, as well as numerous other online gambling sites deemed unlawful, which have typically responded to a wave of cease-and-desist notices from states by not responding in any public forum and instead quietly adding said states to its list of no-go jurisdictions.
Where you lead, I will follow?
Perhaps the neighbors north of the border are taking note of how American gambling regulators seek to force out bad actors.
The Canadian Lottery Coalition (CLC), which consists of MBLL and government lottery corporations in British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces, told SBC Americas on Thursday that the judge’s verdict and reasoning are “a win that should resonate all the way across the Canadian gaming industry.” The CLC has hinted it would be prepared to take further action via “all available means” against unauthorized platforms in the future.
Meanwhile, in Ontario, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has vowed to start coming down harder on operators who continue to take customers’ money despite not being licensed to do so. Ontario’s gambling regulator specifically called out Bodog last month, naming it as an example of the type of unlicensed operator that needs to be squashed.
“The market’s matured enough now that people have had an opportunity and if they’re not going to go through the door, it’s time they stop playing in our market,” Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey said at Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto two weeks ago. “You’ll see a little bit more aggressive approach in that space.”
