Court rejects Quebec’s anti-gambling law

The court rejected a bid to ban citizens’ access to private online gaming sites.

Canada.- The attempt to prohibit citizens access to online gaming websites unauthorised by the state-run gambling corporation has been defeated in Court. The ruling says that the bid is unconstitutional because it infringes upon federal jurisdiction.

The province had adopted the legislation two years ago, forcing internet service providers to block access to online gambling sites that were unauthorised by Loto-Quebec, and received multiple complains arguing that the government was trying to censor the internet and violate net neutrality.

However, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) challenged the legislation, and the ruling establishes that Quebec did not have the authority to do so as the legislation touched the telecommunications and criminal law, which are both federal competencies.

“We have always been clear all Canadians are better served by a proportionate and symmetrical set of federal regulations than a patchwork of provincial regulations,” said a spokesperson for the CWTA in an email.