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April 9, 2008 - Surprise, surprise. Canadian's love to gamble. So much so, in fact, it has been deemed the most popular form of entertainment by the Canadian Gaming Association. Okay, so I suppose there's just an itsy witsy bitsy chance of some bias in that one, so let's quantify and qualify shall we?

The exact quote from the Canadian Gaming Association is that casino gambling is "Canada's largest and most financially significant entertainment industry ." While that necessarily does not translate into "most popular", the fact remains that Canadian's do have a penchant for stakes of the financial kind.

In what apparently amounted to a press release for the Canadian gambling industry, the Gaming Association cited some statistics from 2006, referred to the economic stimulus of casino gambling, and then proclaimed the industry as an "essential pillar of the entertainment industry in Canada." Good for them.

If you thought comedy was the number one form of entertainment in Canada, remember, just because they're good at it, doesn't mean they like to watch it. That's ironic comdey right there for you in true Canadian style!

Before my own standup routine stands more upright, let's talk some numbers, shall we? In 2006, the Canadian gambling industry contributed over $15 billion to the economy and created approximately 267,000 jobs (full-time, mind you). Over 57% of this revenue helped support government services and charitable causes, while the remainder went toward operation costs and employee wages.

Chalk another one up for casinos! And to top it off, this study didn't even correlate online gambling, which everybody knows Canadians are helping sustain in a large way. Although the Canadian government takes an antagonistic stance toward bets of the internet persuasion (or should I say Canada's gambling monopolies and casino interests take this stance), at this stage in the game, only a few threats have been made to police up Canadian facing online casinos and internet betting.

These threats have primarily been aimed at the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, whose sovereign tribal land sits within Canadian borders. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is one of the largest licensors and regulators of online casinos, poker rooms and sportsbooks in the World, and aside from a few slip-ups by some of their licensed sites, Kahnawake has developed a strong and respectable name, not to mention a healthy attitude in brushing off threats made by the Canadian government.

Originally published: April, 2008 | Categories: Gambling