About Murray Marshall Murray Marshall has been a practicing Canadian lawyer for over 34 years and has been called to the bar in Alberta, Québec and Ontario. Murray’s practice has always focused on issues of concern to Indigenous peoples, and he has acted for various Indigenous businesses, governmental entities and individuals. He has advocated on behalf of his clients at every level of court in Alberta, the Federal Court of Canada and the Supreme Court of Canada. Murray has served as legal counsel and advisor to the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (the ‘KGC’) since its inception in 1996 and, in 2009, was named as General Counsel to the Commission. In 1998, he developed the legal framework for Mohawk Internet Technologies (‘MIT’) and drafted the Commission’s ‘Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming’ and ‘Regulations concerning Poker Rooms’. Contact Murray Marshall PO Box 720, Kahnawá:ke, QC, J0L 1B0, Canada Tel: +1 450-632-7500 Fax: +1 450-638-5958 E: communications@mck.ca www.kahnawake.com With iGO, Ontario has charted a dramatically different course – and by doing so created potential legal ambiguities. Do you expect to see any major regulatory or case law developments in the Canadian gaming space in the coming year? In Canada, all eyes are presently on Ontario and its recent iGaming initiative. As Canada’s most populous province, Ontario makes up approximately 50% of the Canadian online gaming market. On 4 April 2022, iGaming Ontario (‘iGO’) was officially launched, but not without some controversy. Historically, all gaming services in Ontario were provided through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (‘OLG’). The OLG is owned and operated by the province of Ontario, following the same model established in all other provinces. There has never been any doubt that OLG’s operations fall squarely within the requirements of paragraph 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code – that “it is lawful…for the government of a province…to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province…” However, with iGO, Ontario has charted a dramatically different course – and by doing so created potential legal ambiguities. iGO is a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (‘AGCO’). The AGCO is the gaming licensing and regulatory body for the province of Ontario. Rather than ‘conducting and managing’ online gaming operations directly, the iGO will enter into agreements with private third-party online gaming operators. These operators will, in turn, be ‘registered‘ by AGCO. In a report entitled ‘Internet Gaming in Ontario’ dated December 2021, the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario cautioned: “The Ontario Government’s new Internet gaming model is similar to the licensing model adopted in other countries around the world. However, Ontario’s proposed model is unique in the Canadian context and may be open to legal challenge under Canada’s Criminal Code”. Other legal commentators have made similar observations. It is possible that Ontario’s iGaming scheme will be subjected to a judicial litmus test, the outcome of which is likely to determine the future course of iGaming in other provinces. THOUGHT LEADER 75
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