HARTLEY

[ck]

Hartley,
In your opinion, why do so many Canadians play with the sports lotteries, when they can easily play offshore, and make wagers on the internet for nearly the same low limits, and with way better odds?


Ck

[Hartley]

I guess the same reason the Oregon residents play their sports lottery despite the worse odds - much lower limits (can wager a couple of bucks), convenience plus I think a lot of people still feel that offshore gambling is technically illegal or that you won't get paid while with a government lottery you're safe.

There are 12 million people in Ontario and I doubt very many of them have heard of bettorsworld (although I'm working on it) .

[ck]

Hartley,
The same goes for Vancouver. I know that there are a lot of people that play "Sports Action". I played the sports lotteries for the last few years until I started surfing the internet and found out about the offshore industry.
Are there ads from sportsbooks in Ontario dailies? A few sportsbooks useto advertise in the Vancouver dailies.
The reason why I'm asking these questions is solely based on curiousity.


Ck

[Hartley]

You can also sometimes get REALLY good odds when the sports lotteries are off. My 3 team winning parlay I posted about 2 weeks ago with Pedro Martinez, Al Leiter and Houston (forget who was pitching) for 3-1 odds was an example. Actual should have been about 2.3-1.

As for sportsbook advertising, go to "www.thefan590.com" during any morning or afternoon drive or for Cash Pomer's show on Sunday morning and you'll notice that there is a lot of radio advertising for books in Toronto.

Current books that advertise which I've heard are:
- Bowman's International
- WWTS
- Olympic Sports
- William Hill

And others I have heard advertise are:

- SOS
- Wizard of Odds
- First Fidelity
- Sportingbet.com
etc. etc.

[ghostly]

I'm from US, but I called Canada, I forget the name of the department, but the gal I talked to read me a Canadian law which did state it was illegal to wager "on or through a computer" unless it was state run.

[Hartley]

It's a gray area. FWIW, no one has ever been charged and even the government admitted that while it's technically "illegal", there isn't anything in place that allows them to charge anyone.

I'll see if I can find something on the net relating to it. FWIW, Starnet was never charged with anything because the government couldn't find anything in the law books that allows them to do anything.

I do know that Canada is looking into the viability of legalizing offshore betting but also taxing it.