Canada and poker have quite a rich history together. Part of the responsibility for the poker boom must fall on the residents in the Great White North and their play on Canadian poker sites.
At the top of the food chain, Texas Hold’em (aka the Cadillac of Poker) still remains the most popular variant of the game, especially when it comes to real money online poker for Canadians.
Jul 31, 2019 When it comes to the legality of online poker it just so happens that Canada is one of the best places in the world to play online poker for real money. There are a wealth of online poker sites to choose from (both government-run like PlayNow in BC and those licensed elsewhere in the world like PokerStars and 888poker ), relaxed federal law regarding online gambling and strong, reliable internet.
It’s no accident that one of the most famous poker players in the world, Daniel Negreanu, is from Canada. The government’s relatively laissez-faire approach to poker regulation has created an environment rich in opportunities for budding poker players.
- Get $88 Free – No Deposit Required
- 100% up to $1,500 bonus on first deposit
- Only international site with WSOP satellites
Canada online poker overview
| Poker Site | Online | Cash | 24 H Peak | 7 Day avg | Last Week | Play Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PokerStars | 55540 | 5885 | 10529 | 7000 | 8710 | Play Now |
| GGPoker | 10673 | 1935 | 2215 | 1700 | 1884 | Play Now |
| 888poker | 768 | 1775 | 1000 | 974 | Play Now | |
| PartyPoker | 1568 | 1247 | 2208 | 1300 | 768 | Play Now |
| iPoker | 1548 | 434 | 1073 | 700 | 742 | Play Now |
| OK Poker | 25 | 309 | 140 | 215 |
Consequently, Canada-based poker enthusiasts can play on most important poker networks without having to worry about deposit or withdrawal limitations.
Best Online Poker Sites in Canada
| Rank | Poker Site | Sign-up Offer | Reasons to Play |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PokerStars | 100% Deposit Match up to $600 (Promo Code: STARS600) | -Highest traffic in the world -Millions in guarantees weekly -New poker variants released frequently |
| 2 | 888Poker | -$88 No-Deposit Bonus -100% Match up to $800 -Freeroll tournament ticket package | -Only non-US site with WSOP satellites -Best sign-up offer package -Huge tournaments every Sunday |
| 3 | PartyPoker | Up to $30 of SPINS Tickets on 1st Deposit | - Rakeback included for every player - Soft cash game play - Excellent support 24/7 |
Canada online poker laws
So, Canadian online gambling-related regulations don’t have a significant impact on the lives of players and Canadian poker sites. In fact, it’s very easy to forget they’re even there. The overall legal situation is similar to what US-based players had to deal with before the Black Friday events.
The only difference is the fact that in the case of Canada, a government crackdown seems highly unlikely, as no politician or government entity seems seriously interested in pursuing stricter regulations.
What is or is not legal in Canada?
Gambling in Canada is regulatedon two levels. Sections 201-206 of the federal Criminal Code render all types of gambling and betting illegal throughout the entire country. Only parimutuel horse race betting is
exempt from this general prohibition.
Section 207, which was introduced in 1985, allows all provincial and territorial governments to provide regulated gambling to Canadian citizens. This means that local authorities, such as the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission or the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, regulate local brick-and-mortar poker rooms.
The above limitations do not really apply to offshore poker operators. Neither federal nor local regulations explicitly ban sites like PokerStars or 888poker from offering their services to Canadian citizens. Experts tend to agree that such operations might be illegal and should be closed down. However, no
charges were ever brought against any foreign companies that accept Canadian gamblers. In fact, operators are free to advertise their Canadian poker sites all over the country. The only exception is Ontario, where online-gambling advertisements have been banned since 2006.
It’s also worth noting that the Kahnawake Gambling Commission used to be a popular choice with US-facing offshore gambling operators, such as Bovada. In 2016, the Commission struck a deal with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, agreeing to force those sites to withdraw from the US market. As a result, Bovada relinquished its Kahnawake license voluntarily.
Where can I play poker online in Canada?
Canadians are free to play on all the major West-facing poker networks, except for Winamax, which is available exclusively to Europe-based players.
PokerStars
PokerStars overview:
When people say “online poker”, they often mean “PokerStars”. PokerStars accounts for the majority of traffic on all West-facing sites, including Canadian poker sites. The only poker room that rivals it in terms of size is the Asian IDNPoker.
PokerStars game selection:
PokerStars outshines other poker sites in terms of game selection. This is mostly due to the fact that the size of its player pool allows it to offer less-popular poker variants, such as Stud or HORSE. Whether you’re looking for cash games, STTs, or MTTs, you’re guaranteed to find them here, and in a wide
variety of stakes.
Other places where PokerStars operates:
Aside from the global network, PokerStars also operates several sites on the local fenced markets in Nevada, New Jersey, Italy, Portugal, and France.
888poker
888poker overview:
The second-largest Canada-friendly poker network is 888poker. Their overall traffic numbers are very low when compared to PokerStars, but competition is very soft, particularly at the lower stakes.
888poker game choices:
The site is mostly about Texas Hold’em cash games. SNGs are also available, but finding an opponent is difficult, especially if you aren’t playing during peak traffic hours. The site also hosts plenty of MTTs, but the guaranteed prize pools aren’t as high as the ones offered by PokerStars.
Other places where 888poker operates:
888poker is also available in Spain and in New Jersey thanks to a partnership deal with WSOP. All WSOP-branded poker rooms run on 888’s software.
Party Poker
Party Poker overview:
This poker room is slightly smaller than 888poker. The competition is generally even fishier. Nevertheless, taking advantage of those players is harder on partypoker. The site tends to protect its weaker players by limiting micro-stake multi-tabling. Partypoker’s cashback program is the best in the entire online poker industry.
Party Poker game choices:
Just like on 888poker, cash games on partypoker are mostly micro-stakeand low-stake Hold’em. The site additionally offers a surprisingly extensive selection of multi-table tournaments and Sit & Go’s.
Best Poker Sites Real Money
Other locations where Party Poker operates:
Party Poker has local sites in New Jersey, Spain, and France.
Where can I play poker live in Canada?
If you don’t want to play at any online Canadian poker sites, there are over 50 licensed brick-and-mortar poker rooms in Canada spread out across the country. So, finding a venue shouldn’t be much of an issue. Here’s a list of some of the most interesting locations:
- Playground Poker Club (Kahnawake)
- Casino Montreal (Montreal)
- OLG Casino Brantford (Ontario)
- Caesars Windsor (Ontario)
- Niagara Fallsview (Ontario)
- River Rock (British Columbia)
- Casino Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia)
- Northlands Park (Alberta)
Canada and poker-related taxes
While gambling companies operating on the Canadian market are considered suppliers of gambling services and products to territorial governments, the country does not recognize any industry-specific taxes. Gambling companies simply must comply with federal and local income tax laws, and that’s that.
For players, the situation gets slightly more complicated. If you’re a recreational player and poker isn’t your only source of income, you don’t owe the state any income tax on your poker winnings. On the other hand, if you’re a professional player, you are required by law to pay income tax . However, for a person to be officially considered a professional poker player, it must be provable that they expect to receive a steady income and that said income was earned by an intentional pursuit of profit.
More on poker pro tax status
However, the Canadian Revenue Agency isn’t keen on pushing for such interpretations, as they would imply that all poker-related expenses incurred by the player suddenly become tax-deductible. This would include travel and accommodation costs, buy-ins, computer software, coaching, courses,
possibly rake, and more. Consequently, very few people officially achieve a “poker businessman” status in Canada. Even in cases involving highly profitable players, the situation is almost never clear-cut.
Both the Tax Court of Canada (2011, Cohen v. The Queen) and the Federal Court (2013, Radonjic v. Canada Revenue Agency) sided with poker players, determining that they aren’t conducting a gambling business even though they were consistently turning a profit from their poker play.
The bottom line is fairly simple: if you aren’t a WSOP Circuit pro, you don’t have to worry about taxes.
And if you do happen to sit down at the poker table with the likes of Scott Blumstein from time to time, you can always deduce your expenses from your income before you pay that 33-percent tax.
Legal gambling age in Canada
The legal gambling age is 18 or 19 in Canada, depending on the province:
- Alberta – 18
- British Columbia – 19
- Manitoba – 18
- New Brunswick – 19
- Newfoundland and Labrador – 19
- Nova Scotia – 19
- Ontario – 19
- Prince Edward Island – 19
- Quebec – 18
- Saskatchewan – 19
Canadian online poker players don’t have to deal with geo-location requirements on Canadian poker sites. ID verification requirements vary from site to another, but in the vast majority of cases, a photocopy or scan of a Canadian passport is more than enough.
History of online poker in Canada
As mentioned above, Canadian players have always enjoyed unrestricted access to online poker rooms. Unlike United States citizens, they never had to deal with a major government crackdown. The aforementioned 2006 Ontario ban on gambling-related ads is the only case of a local government trying to interfere with online gambling.
Unlike in the case of United States, major online poker providers, such as PokerStars and partypoker, never had to flee the country. All in all, Canadian poker enthusiasts tend to have it even better than their European colleagues.
When it comes to locally regulated online poker sites, available options suffer from very poor traffic. This is mostly because, unlike similar poker rooms operating on fenced markets in the United States and Europe, they simply cannot rely on a lack of competition to boost their numbers. Official regulated sites such as Loto-Quebec (Quebec) and PlayNow (British Colombia) tried overcoming this issue by combining their player pools on a peer-to-peer network. Unfortunately, the results were rather disheartening.
Canada online poker sites can be found in abundance. The North American nation is consistently regarded as one of the best locations for online players. While other countries fret about the evils of gambling and spend an inordinate amount of time debating the issue, Canada chooses to devote their energy to more important topics such as healthcare and worker’s rights. In short, they’re about as close as you can get to a virtual gamer’s paradise.
In the following article, we’ll look at the legality of online poker in Canada, as well as some of the leading card rooms available to residents. While the information below won’t turn you into the next Daniel Negreanu, it should at least provide you with a decent idea of the options available to Canadian poker enthusiasts.
Play Now at the Top Canadian Poker Sites
- $88 Free
Is Online Poker Legal in Canada?
Canadian residents in most cities can gamble on online poker. Canada allows online card rooms which do not have servers inside Canada to accept Canadian poker players. Some Internet poker sites host their sites on servers in the Kahnawake Reservation south of Montreal, Quebec. The world famous Kahnawake Gaming Commission licenses those poker sites.
When you ask, “Is online poker legal in Canada?”, the answer might be different, according to your location. Some Canadian provinces, such as Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and Labrador, have stricter gaming laws than other provinces. The city of Markham (Ontario), which is home to over 1100 technology companies, bans online gambling.
Canada’s online poker law exists in a gray area because the Canadian national government allows provincial and territorial governments to decide gaming laws. Individual provinces sometimes try to enforce sports betting laws to help state-run monopolies, but Canadian provinces do not ban online poker. Players should research gaming laws in their towns and provinces, though no online poker player has ever been prosecuted for playing poker online in Canada.
For those reasons, Canada is a haven for international online poker players, including many American card players who want to grind at the poker tables for a living. Players usually relocated to big cities like Toronto or Vancouver, depending on whether they want to live in the east or the west of North American. Some US expatriates relocate to Windsor, Ontario, a city which sites on the south bank of the Detroit River, and therefore is actually south of Detroit.
Top 3 Canadian Poker Sites
Canadian online poker sites are easy to find, as residents have access to virtual card rooms catering to both American and European players. While the following list is far from complete, it’s meant to provide readers with a basic sampling of what’s available.
The 3 best Canadian poker sites in Canada are 888poker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker. Each has its advantages, so I’ll discuss all three online poker rooms separately. Two of the sites, PokerStars and FullTilt Poker, are now owned by the same gaming group. Both offer different tournaments and promotions, so read through the profile of both before you decide which site to use. Read the Canada poker online guide below to see which card room is best for your playing needs.
PokerStars
PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world, so its card room is full all times of the day. No other site is going to have as many poker options as PokerStars, while it has the biggest Sunday guaranteed events. PokerStars is famous for its Sunday Majors tournaments, along with its Sunday Warmup events. PokerStars also offers its retooled Stars Rewards, which provides Stars Coins and freeplay for casual players and grinders alike. Spin & Go Max event offer $10,000x your entry amount, with entry fees as low as $1 apiece.
When making your first deposit at PokerStars, input the bonus code “STARS600” to receive a 100% bonus up to $600 over 3 deposits in your first 60 days of activity. Alternately, you can use the PokerStars coupon code “THIRTY” to receive $30 of freeplay money. PokerStars has been the standard in online poker for over a decade now, so Canadian poker players wanting to try the world’s most famous poker site should consider signing up with PokerStars.
888Poker
888 Poker provides online poker with bet limits between 1¢ and $1000. 888poker offers cash games, sit & go’s, and big tournament events. SNAP events (fast-told poker) is available, for those who don’t want long waits on opponent decisions. Players can choose between Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or 7-Card Stud. Those who want the feel of a live poker event have access to webcam events. 888poker has a large community of card players, so tables at many bet levels are available 24/7.
New signups receive a welcome bonus up to $400. Those who want to test the real money games with no risk have access to a $88 no-deposit bonus. 888poker supports dozens of payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller. Canadian web wallets like iDebit and Citadel are available for 888 poker players. Poker 888 Canada is owned by 888 Holdings, one of the largest and most trusted online gambling groups in the world.
Full Tilt
The Sunday Million has a $1 million guarantee, while the Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Majors (Kickoff, Storm, Supersonic) all have huge prize pools. The Saturday Line-Up is a series of major guaranteed tournaments which run every week. These include the Saturday Micro, Eliminator, Splash, Duel, Speedway, and Saturday KO (which has the biggest prize pool). Seven days a week, Full Tilt Poker has events like Omania (Omaha events), Bounty Builders, Daily Turbo Tournaments, and Spin & Go events. Also, players can join Big Stacks events, which are non-stop play money tournaments with huge starting stacks, allowing players the feel of a large WSOP-style tournament.
Because Full Tilt Poker is owned by the Stars Group, the owner of PokerStars, it has the same welcome bonus and rewards program as PokerStars. That means you receive a $600, 100% welcome bonus when you use the STARS600 code. It also means you receive a $30 no-deposit bonus when you use the bonus code “THIRTY”. Loyal FTP players receive Stars Coins for every event entered, which can be used for tournament entries, freerolls, and other rewards. For instance, Full Tilt Poker players can use StarsCoins to play “The Deal”, which is a progressive jackpot which starts at $25,000 and has an entry fee of only 7 StarsCoins.
Different Playing Styles
Players in the United States tend to play the ‘classic’ version of poker, which means that a great deal of the hand is resolved prior to the flop. This style is frequently employed by professionals, and you’re likely to see it on display in most major tournaments.
The European style is quite different, with players preferring to see the flop before battling it out with their opponents. While not the most conventional form of play, it can result in a great amount of excitement for spectators, as well as huge pots for the participants.
Which playing style are you more likely to find at Canadian poker site?
Actually, the answer lies somewhere between the two options. Since Canada and the United States are neighbors, the American style of play is highly influential. Meanwhile, Canadian players are readily accepted at European poker rooms, and many adapt their style to match the competition found at these sites.
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
On April 15th, 2011, the U.S. government started cracking down on the Internet gaming industry. In addition to issuing indictments against a number of executives from leading sites, they also made it difficult to deposit or withdraw money for the purpose of offshore gambling.
Relocation of U.S. Players
This led to an interesting phenomenon involving American poker players, and it revolved around a website called Poker Refugees. For a fee of $1,200, the site’s owner would help professional online card players from the United States relocate to Canada to continue their trade.
Most of the participating grinders moved to Windsor, while high rollers often resettled in Montreal, Whistler, Toronto, or Vancouver. Now that states such as Las Vegas and New Jersey have decided to offer licensed online gambling, there’s a good chance that some of these expatriates may return to their country of birth.
Still, it’s interesting to note that Canada was willing to fill the void following the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
Poker Online Real Money
Final Verdict
Canadian residents have no idea how fortunate they are. While other nations heap gaming restrictions on their citizens, Canada online poker sites are available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.
Thanks to the diversity of options, customers can access virtual card rooms that appeal to both the European and North American markets. This allows them to choose from among the best bonus and rake-back options, as well as compete with players who utilize a wide range of strategies.
Play Now at the Top Canadian Poker Sites
- $88 Free