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How Does Your Brain React To Online Gambling? in Canada
Now that this disease is better understood, more and more people are successfully recovering from gambling addiction. However, it is estimated that up to 80% of pathological gamblers never seek treatment for their problems. In order to recover, the addict needs to first confront the fact that he is an addict. With the help and support of friends and family, or even just a support group like Gamblers Anonymous, the individual can find their way to recovery. Positive lifestyle changes, like disassociating themselves from their previous detrimental associates and haunts, will aid the recovery process. Intellectualizing: "I’ve figured out the system, there’s a mathematical method to my madness, soon we’ll be rolling in it."
Problem Gambling and Addiction in Canada
While most Canadians enjoy gambling responsibly, there are a small percentage of Canadian adults (3.2%) who struggle with moderate to severe gambling addictions. Those affected do not roll the dice for pleasure, but do so compulsively and irresponsibly.
If left unchecked this disorder can wreak havoc in the addict’s personal and professional lives. However, the pathological gambler can be difficult to detect, as, like other addicts, he will protect his addiction by disguising the severity of his behavioral problems and resulting negative consequences. This can make it difficult for loved ones to confront the issue, or even to detect that there is anything awry. It is crucial that mental health disorders are professionally treated before they lead to serious issues like depression, bankruptcy or suicide.
If are worried that yours or a family members’ gambling is starting to become more than a fun pastime, please seek professional assistance. See our full list of Canadian problem gambling resources at the bottom of the page. For more information on symptoms and causes of gambling addiction and who may be at risk, please read on.
What Is A Gambling Addiction?
Why do some people enjoy gambling as a pleasurable past time whereas a select few abuse the habit despite increasingly negative consequences? The reason is similar to why alcoholics keep drinking, smokers keep smoking and heroin addicts keep injecting. They are addicted.
Before 2013, pathological gambling was classified as an impulse compulsion in the DSM like pyromania, rather than an addiction. Recent studies in neuroscience and genetics have demonstrated that gambling rewires the neural networks in the brain in a comparable way to addictive drugs like cocaine. This is one of the factors that lead to the reclassification of the disorder and the overhaul in the way the disease is treated.
How Is It Defined?
- An addict craves their addiction
- They seem to act compulsively
- They cannot control the amount they use
- Despite negative consequences they continue their addiction
- They can’t stop thinking about their addiction or reduce their amount despite attempts to try
What Are the Warning Signs of a Gambling Addiction?
By the time individuals reveal themselves through their behavior to be an addict, they will have already caused significant harm to themselves or others. The abuser will feel a high degree of shame about their actions and try to eliminate all traces of their actions by lying, often even to themselves. Watch out for the following warning signs of the compulsive gambler:
Acting Secretively
If you find a loved one acting more shady and secretive than before, this should always ring warning bells. What is it they are ashamed of? What are they hiding? Keep a close eye on them, but don’t invade their privacy, as this will push them further away. Just ask considerate questions, perhaps they will open up.
Lighter Wallet Than You Remember
Where did it go? Were you really that careless with money this month? Didn’t think so. Keep a close eye on your money and keep a note of the amount of money that has gone missing. Let your loved one know you are aware of the theft, but don’t directly confront them unless you have hard evidence.
Defensive Behavior: Denial
People who are in denial often don’t realize they are lying and covering up their behavior as their own subconscious tries to hide the fact even from themselves. As a loved one, you should try to encourage the addict to face facts and seek professional help. Perhaps you notice the poker chips in their pocket and casually ask them when they were last at the casino. There are different types of denial reactions to look out for that can signify if a loved one has a problem.
Aggressive and Accusative Reactions
Blaming: "Work is really stressful at the moment and it doesn’t help that you are always on my back about xyz. "
Threatening: "See what happens if you bring that up again.” Or, alternatively, “You had better loan me that cash."
Guilt Tripping: "After all I’ve done for you, this is how you treat me? "
These reactions scream back off, and instinctively you will find yourself angry with the individual. They will skillfully redirect the focus towards your problems or to a lesser problem of their own, which they may apologize for to placate you. Alternatively, you will walk away and give them the silent treatment. Either way, these outcomes are preferable to the pathological gambler. Instead, remain calm regardless of how much they try to goad you into a negative reaction. You will soon see that the over reaction is paper thin.
Misdirection and Confusion Technique: Don’t Fall For It
Projecting: "Simona dragged me there again last night, she really needs to lay off the cards! Glad I’m not there as often as her."
Minimizing: "Oh, those are left over from when we went a few weeks ago, I don’t think I’ve been since then. That receipt says it’s from last night? Yeah I forgot, I only played a hand with my work buddies. "
Switching: "I have my vices. Who doesn’t in this awful world we live in. Capitalism has really messed us all up, hasn’t it?"
Joking: "I can stop gambling! I stop every time I change slot machines. "
Intellectualizing: "I’ve figured out the system, there’s a mathematical method to my madness, soon we’ll be rolling in it."
And The Most Dangerous Of All Denials…
Agreeing: "Yeah you’re right I really should stop… This is the last time I swear."
This is exactly what loved ones want to hear and have no problem with believing it every time. The fact is, the addict isn’t going to change without intervention and professional help.
Confronting the Addict: Intervention
Gather together friends and family who have been affected by the excessive gambling. The point of the intervention is not blame, but to get the afflicted person to seek professional help and to face up to their problem. The tone should be loving and encouraging, never confrontational or aggressive. The individual should feel safe to admit their problems and positive action should be taken that day, with the person’s permission. If at any point, you feel the sufferer is at risk of self-harm or suicide the contact the suicide prevention helpline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Take the Self Diagnosis Test
Has the above page started ringing some uncomfortable bells for you personally? Answer our self-diagnostic test to see if you may have a problem with pathological gambling.
- Do you feel guilty or have negative thoughts about gambling or the consequences of your gambling?
- Have you previously tried to cut down on time, money and energy spent on gambling and failed?
- Do you find yourself spending time & money on gambling that should be spent on other financial obligations?
- Do you spend inordinate amounts of time fantasising about the next time?
- Do you feel extreme highs and lows relating to gambling?
- Do you feel defensive and protective of your “habit”?
- Do you gamble to make yourself feel better?
- Have you found yourself taking risks or engaging in illegal activity to fund your ‘habit”?
- Have you found yourself surrounding yourself with “lower” people, because they make your own gambling seem normal by comparison?
If you answered yes to 2 or more of these questions, you are at a very high risk for gambling addiction and should seek professional help and assessment. Please see the list of local resources at the bottom of the page.
Positive Steps for Recovery
Now that this disease is better understood, more and more people are successfully recovering from gambling addiction. However, it is estimated that up to 80% of pathological gamblers never seek treatment for their problems. In order to recover, the addict needs to first confront the fact that he is an addict. With the help and support of friends and family, or even just a support group like Gamblers Anonymous, the individual can find their way to recovery. Positive lifestyle changes, like disassociating themselves from their previous detrimental associates and haunts, will aid the recovery process.
Avoiding Relapse
Once identified as an addict, the problem-gambler should eliminate gambling from their lives entirely. There is no such thing as “one more hand” for a pathological gambler. Talking with a debt recovery accountant and financial advisor will help alleviate the accumulated financial burden. Family members should allow the addict to take on the responsibility of their own debt and not bail them out. As difficult as it may seem, bailing out the compulsive gambler will enable the disease, making them more prone to relapse.
Designed to deceive: How gambling distorts reality and hooks your brain
Author
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University
Disclosure statement
Mike Robinson has previously received funding from the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG).
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The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations
To call gambling a “game of chance” evokes fun, random luck and a sense of collective engagement. These playful connotations may be part of why almost 80 percent of American adults gamble at some point in their lifetime. When I ask my psychology students why they think people gamble, the most frequent suggestions are for pleasure, money or the thrill.
While these might be reasons why people gamble initially, psychologists don’t definitely know why, for some, gambling stops being an enjoyable diversion and becomes compulsive. What keeps people playing even when it stops being fun? Why stick with games people know are designed for them to lose? Are some people just more unlucky than the rest of us, or simply worse at calculating the odds?
As an addiction researcher for the past 15 years, I look to the brain to understand the hooks that make gambling so compelling. I’ve found that many are intentionally hidden in how the games are designed. And these hooks work on casual casino-goers just as well as they do on problem gamblers.
Uncertainty as its own reward in the brain
One of the hallmarks of gambling is its uncertainty – whether it’s the size of a jackpot or the probability of winning at all. And reward uncertainty plays a crucial role in gambling’s attraction.
Dopamine, the neurotransmitter the brain releases during enjoyable activities such as eating, sex and drugs, is also released during situations where the reward is uncertain. In fact dopamine release increases particularly during the moments leading up to a potential reward. This anticipation effect might explain why dopamine release parallels an individual’s levels of gambling “high” and the severity of his or her gambling addiction. It likely also plays a role in reinforcing the risk-taking behavior seen in gambling.
Studies have shown that the release of dopamine during gambling occurs in brain areas similar to those activated by taking drugs of abuse. In fact, similar to drugs, repeated exposure to gambling and uncertainty produces lasting changes in the human brain. These reward pathways, similar to those seen in individuals suffering from drug addiction, become hypersensitive. Animal studies suggest that these brain changes due to uncertainty can even enhance gamblers’ cravings and desire for addictive drugs.
Repeated exposure to gambling and uncertainty can even change how you respond to losing. Counterintuitively, in individuals with a gambling problem, losing money comes to trigger the rewarding release of dopamine almost to the same degree that winning does. As a result, in problem gamblers, losing sets off the urge to keep playing, rather than the disappointment that might prompt you to walk away, a phenomenon known as chasing losses.
Lights and sounds egg you on
But gambling is more than just winning and losing. It can be a whole immersive environment with an array of flashing lights and sounds. This is particularly true in a busy casino, but even a game or gambling app on a smartphone includes plenty of audio and visual frills to capture your attention.
But are they just frills? Studies suggest that these lights and sounds become more attractive and capable of triggering urges to play when they are paired with reward uncertainty. In particular, win-associated cues – such as jingles that vary in length and size as a function of jackpot size – both increase excitement and lead gamblers to overestimate how often they are winning. Crucially, they can also keep you gambling longer and encourage you to play faster.
Feeling like a winner while you’re losing
Since games of chance are set up so the house always has an advantage, a gambler wins infrequently at best. You might only rarely experience the lights and sounds that come along with hitting a true jackpot. However, the gaming industry may have devised a way to overcome that issue.
Over the last few decades, casinos and game manufacturers significantly upgraded slot machines, retiring the old mechanical arms and reels in favor of electronic versions known as electronic gaming machines. These new computerized games and online slots come with more attractive colorful lights and a variety of sounds. They also possess more reels, ushering in a new era of multi-line video slot machines.
Having multiple lines enables players to place a bunch of bets per spin, often up to 20 or more. Although each individual bet can be small, many players place the maximum number of bets on each spin. This strategy means a player can win on some lines while losing on others, netting less than the original wager. Even when you “win,” you don’t come out ahead, a phenomenon known as “losses disguised as wins.” Yet each win, even when it is a loss disguised as a win, comes with the lights and sounds of victory.
The result is that these multi-line slot machines produce more enjoyment and are highly preferred by players. Crucially, they tend to make gamblers overestimate how often they’re truly winning. The dramatic increase in the frequency of wins, whether real or fabricated, produces more arousal and activation of reward pathways in the brain, possibly accelerating the rate at which brain changes occur. Multi-line slots also seem to promote the development of “dark flow,” a trance-like state in which players get wholly absorbed in the game, sometimes for hours on end.
Almost: Near-miss effect and chasing your losses
The rise of electronic gambling machines also means that rather than being constrained by the physical arrangement of different possible outcomes on each reel, possible outcomes are programmed onto a set of virtual reels. Gaming designers can therefore stack the deck to make certain events occur more frequently than others.
This includes near-misses, where one of the reels stops just short of lining up for a jackpot. These near-miss almost-wins recruit areas of the brain that usually respond to wins, and increase one’s desire to play more, especially in problem gamblers.
This phenomenon is not confined to slot machines and casinos. Near-misses play an integral part in the addictive potential of smartphone games like the very popular “Candy Crush.”
Near-misses are more arousing than losses – despite being more frustrating and significantly less pleasant than missing by a longshot. But crucially, almost winning triggers a more substantial urge to play than even winning itself. Near-misses seem to be highly motivating and increase player commitment to a game, resulting in individuals playing longer than they intended. The size of the dopamine response to a near-miss in fact correlates with the severity of an individual’s gambling addiction.
Gambling and its games
When you engage in recreational gambling, you are not simply playing against the odds, but also battling an enemy trained in the art of deceit and subterfuge. Games of chance have a vested interest in hooking players for longer and letting them eventually walk away with the impression they did better than chance, fostering a false impression of skill.
For many people, these carefully designed outcomes enhance the satisfaction they get from gambling. It may remain easy for them to simply walk away when the chips run out.
But gambling isn’t only a lighthearted promise of a good time and a possible jackpot. Up to 2 percent of the U.S. population are problem gamblers, suffering from what’s recently been reclassified as gambling disorder.
It stands out as one of the few addictions that doesn’t involve consumption of a substance, such as a drug. Like other forms of addiction, gambling disorder is a solitary and isolating experience. It’s tied to growing anxiety, and problem gamblers are at greater risk of suicide.
For these more susceptible individuals, the game designers’ hooks start to seem more sinister. A solution to life’s problems always feels just one spin away.
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A Brain Chemical That May Cause Gambling Addiction, or Bankruptcy
A player checks his cards during the finals of the Russian Masters Poker Cup in the casino at the Azov-City gambling zone, some 90 km (56 miles) south of Russia's southern city of Rostov-on-Don, September 23, 2010. Vladimir Konstantinov/Reuters
A chemical in the brain associated with regions involved in sensory and reward systems is important in determining how people deal with the pain of financial loss, scientists have revealed in a paper published on Tuesday in the Molecular Psychiatry journal.
Researchers said that the study, which may have revealed what was going on the brains of Wall Street traders as the 2008 financial crisis began, could potentially pave the way for the development of medications that could treat uncontrolled gamblers.b
The study revealed that norepinephrine or noradrenaline, which works as both a hormone and neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, is central to an individual’s neurological response to losing money.
A team of researchers led by Hidehiko Takahashi of the Kyoto University graduate school of medicine in Japan conducted positron emission tomography (PET) scans on 19 participants who were healthy men, after they had completed a gambling task.
The scans showed that participants with lower levels of norepinephrine transporters, which are responsible for the reabsorption of extracellular norepinephrine, also had higher levels of the norepinephrine, which lead them to be less affected and sensitive to the pain of losing money.
Researchers found the opposite in participants with higher levels of those transporters who consequently had lower levels of norepinephrine. Those participants had what which researchers deemed as “loss aversion” because their emotional responses to losses were more magnified compared emotional responses to gains, and “loss aversion” varies widely between people, experts said.
Experts explained that although most people would only enter a two outcome gamble if there was more of a possibility to win more than they could lose, and people with lower levels of norepinephrine transporters and higher levels of norepinephrine showed reduced sensitivity to financial loss, and therefore were more prone to impaired decision making.
"We like to believe we all have free will and make whatever decisions we want to, but this shows it's not so easy," said Julio Licinio, editor of the Molecular Psychiatry journal, according to Reuters. "Many people have a predisposure to make certain kinds of decisions."
"Pathological gambling that happens at regular casinos is bad enough, but I think it's also happening a lot now at Casino Wall Street and Casino City of London," he added.
"This research uses sophisticated brain scanning to improve our understanding of the way that our appetite for risk is linked to the way that chemical messengers operate in the brain," Derek Hill, a professor of medical imaging science at University College London who was not involved in the research, told Reuters.
"It is quite preliminary work, but has many intriguing implications," he said, explaining that PET scans could potentially be used to treat people who indulge excessively in risky behavior.
Experts indicated that further research needs to be done to analyze known problem gamblers to confirm whether they do indeed have higher levels of these brain chemical transporters than non-gamblers.
"Also there is a need to investigate if noradrenaline transporters are also increased in brain regions traditionally associated with decision making and emotional aspects of aversion such as the prefrontal cortex and amygdala," Alexis Bailey, a lecturer in neuropharmacology at Britain's University of Surrey, told Reuters.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have currently not approved any prescription medications to treat pathological gambling. Most treatments for gambling addiction involves counseling, step-based programs, self-help, peer-support, some non-FDA approved medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor Paroxetine or opioid receptor antagonist Nalmefene, or a combination of treatments.
Gamblers Anonymous, a common 12-step model that emphasizes a mutual-support approach and commonly used for people addicted to gambling, is modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous.
Canadian gambling facts that you might not know
If you’re passionate about gambling, then you must be on the lookout for interesting facts on the subject. No matter how much we know about the things we enjoy, there’s always more to find out. Our focus this time will be on land-based casinos and gambling facts Canada-style. We’ll dive into topics such as taxes on gambling winnings in Canada, legal frameworks, tendencies, history and a bit of superstition. Stick around for an intriguing read!
Page contents
Gambling Facts Canada Edition
Living in one of the industry-leading countries in terms comes of gambling, Canadians immerse themselves in sports betting, slots, table games and poker. Across the country, gambling is seen as a form of having fun. Canadian citizens are expected to be responsible about betting and use their privileges for entertainment purposes. As the nation evolved, along with its provinces, the government was clever enough to make the decision to leave the freedom to gamble to the people. This contributed to the growth of land-based casinos, and later to the expanse of the online gaming sector.
Early History of Canadian Casinos
As an independent country, Canada was established in 1867. The Canadian Criminal Code came into effect in 1892, banning every form of gambling known to the average citizen. Fortunately for everyone involved in gambling activities at the time, the perception on making bets changed fairly quickly. Bingo and raffles were the first to reappear. These forms of betting were permitted for charitable purposes. A decade later, horse racing was added to the list.
In 1970, gambling laws in Canada suffered changes that approved provinces to oversee gambling within their respective borders. The first Canadian commercial land-based casino opened its doors in Winnipeg in 1989. In the years to come, more venues were built in Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
By the early 2000s, Canada's gambling industry would feature:
- 31,000+ slot machines
- 50+ permanent casinos
- 32,000 lottery ticket outlets
No. 1 Entertainment Industry
Believe it or not, gaming is the largest entertainment industry in Canada. If you combine movies, television, music production and professional sports, they together come close to how big the gaming sector is in the Great White North. Provincial and territorial governments control all gambling activities. The gambling business is the source of more than 267,000 jobs, out of which more than 135,000 are full-time jobs.
Canada Gambling Demographics
The talk about demographics is often geared towards problem gamblers. We choose to shed some positivity over what is one of the primary funding sources for many Canadian government programs. Obviously, we’re referring to responsible, adult gambling. Statistics reveal that the majority of the gamblers in the country are male, constituting 80% of all gamblers in Canada. They are mostly fond of sports betting. Females also gamble a lot, favouring lottery and bingo.
Most of the gamblers are young adults who are either in college or at the beginning of their careers. The gambling population ranges between the ages of 35 and 50 in the broadest of angles. Slot machines seem to be the games of choice for many punters between the ages of 55 and 64.
The greatest number of gamblers comes from British Columbia, Québec and Alberta. Looking at the popularity of casino venues, Québec and Ontario easily have the most visited casinos in Lumberjack Country.
A Dealer’s Life Behind the Scenes
Being a casino dealer has many appealing aspects. It certainly sounds like a glamorous occupation, one that’s performed at luxurious casino resorts. Nevertheless, a dealer’s life is not all fun and games and generous tips. One needs to boast relevant skills and attributes to be able to operate the tables.
In Canadian casinos, according to statistics, the average base pay for a casino dealer is approximately C$14,700 a year. A large part of their compensation is generated through tips. Canadian casino patrons are encouraged to tip the dealer. This is a token of their appreciation for the professional and courteous service they’ve received. Now, if a dealer is exceptional at his/her job, the salary can be tripled or even quadrupled.
Before they are seated at the table, most dealers need to go through extensive training in-house. If you’re pursuing a career in this noble profession, you need to be able to add, subtract, and multiply quickly in your head. In other words, basic high school math shouldn’t be a problem. A dealer must have a license from the state gaming board, good communication skills, a clean record and perfect colour vision.
Canada’s Tax Law on Gambling Winnings
One of the most sought-after facts about gambling in Canada deals with taxation laws on winnings from gambling. If you are wondering whether you should pay any taxes on what you’ve won at a casino, the answer is most likely no. In the majority of cases, gambling winnings are exempt from taxes in Canada. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) doesn’t require paying taxes on lottery winnings and casino winnings (as long as you are not a pro gambler and make a living this way). Winnings from bookmakers are treated as income, and therefore taxed.
Interesting Casino Superstitions
Even today, many casino players are subject to certain superstitions. They want to have luck on their side and will do everything to secure that. It is arguable whether superstition can benefit gamblers or not. Some believe it can, but not because any superstitious ritual will actually influence the outcome of a casino game. It’s because it will give the player extra confidence and a sense of control of the situation. Think about it – without control, we may get anxious. In skill-driven games, our ability to think may be compromised. So, from that angle, an innocent superstitious act may increase our performance.
Some of the most common superstitions include believing in lucky and unlucky numbers, lucky and unlucky colours, wearing the same clothes and carrying lucky charms. There are some quirky examples too, like “don’t wash your hands before you play”, “don’t touch another gambler’s shoulder” or “don’t enter a gambling establishment through the back door”.
Online Gambling in Canada—Six Things you Need to Know
#1: Online Gambling Legality: Are online Casinos Legal in Canada?
Canadian gambling laws were crafted in the 1900s, long before the advent of online casinos. The most recent law, the Criminal Code of 1970, is still used to provide oversight over land-based casinos.
Where does that leave online casinos? A grey area. Canadian laws don’t mention online gambling, meaning they don’t prohibit it. That’s a good thing because it means you can play online casino games without breaking the law.
For Canadian investors, though, it’s not so good. Canada doesn’t license or regulate online casinos. As a result, most online casinos that accept Canadians are based offshore—countries like Malta, Britain, Curacao and the US.
The few operators based in Canada are licensed and regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. For the uninitiated, this regulator oversees land-based and lately online casinos used by first-nation Canadians.
Takeaway: Canada doesn’t prohibit online gambling. That means you can deposit money, gamble on slots, poker or roulette and withdraw your money stress-free. However, that’s mainly possible at international online casinos.
#2: Taxes: Are online Gamblers taxed in Canada? How much?
The short answer is no. You won’t get taxed if you win money at online casinos in Canada. A case in point is the man who won C$7.5 Million at the progressive jackpot, Mega Moolah, in 2015.
In case you missed it, his story was broadcasted countrywide. He was an inexperienced player, yet he won C$7.5M, proving how lucrative online gaming can be. The best part was that he didn’t pay taxes for his profits.
Despite that, it’s essential to know that some provinces might tax you if gambling is your primary income source.
Takeaway: Canada is a tax haven for online gamblers. You don’t pay taxes on your winnings unless you’re a professional.
#3: Games: What casino Games can you Play Online in Canada?
If you follow gambling news in the US, you know that the games you can play differ from one state to the other. You can play poker in California and Nevada but not slots or roulette. You can bet on sports in some states but not casino games.
Luckily, Canadian gambling laws are different than those in USA. In Canada, you can play all gambling games your preferred casino is licensed to provide. Yes, that’s right. Online casinos operate through licenses that govern what games they can offer.
That’s not a big problem, though. The real problem comes in identifying fantastic slots and card games to play. It also comes in finding the best casino sites to play these games. With games, you need high-paying, entertaining games from respected software providers such as:
- NetEnt
- Microgaming
- Play’n GO
- Evolution Gaming
When it comes to finding online casinos in Canada, the easiest way is through gambling review websites. They do the heavy lifting of verifying licenses, checking, games, bonuses and finding additional information about Canadian gambling sites. Then they recommend a few top-rated operators for you.
Takeaway: Most online casino games are legal in Canada. However, you should pay more focus on finding great quality games and casinos—attractive designs, entertaining, feature-loaded and top-rated. One way to do that is to visit Casino Professor. This award-winning casino comparison site compares online casinos specifically for Canadians. You can read in-depth casino reviews explaining exactly what you can expect at each site as a player in Canada.
#4: Bonuses and Free Spins: Are they worth it?
Nearly every online casino in Canada runs a promotion of some kind. Some give you free spins to play a popular slot immediately you create an account. Others match your first deposit 100% so that if you deposit $100, you receive an extra $100.
Bonuses can help boost your profits and cushion your losses. But they can also be your worst nightmare. A good bonus comes with flexible terms and conditions. That way, you can use it to win real money and cash it out hassle-free.
Nightmarish bonuses tend to come from the worst casinos. They come in the form of unnecessarily huge wagering requirements. Or you might receive free spins you can’t withdraw for some reason.
When looking for casino bonuses, consider:
- Amount
- Wagering requirements
- Game contribution
- Validity period
- A Casino’s reputation
Takeaway: Claim bonuses from top-rated casinos for the best offers. You’ll receive betting credits with friendly terms and conditions.
#5: Safe Banking Options: How can you Deposit and Withdraw Money?
When it comes to payments, you can deposit money through bank transfer, e-wallets, cryptocurrencies and credit cards. The specific banking option you use depends on the particular online casino you join.
Generally speaking, Visa and MasterCard are the most accepted credit/debit cards. PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, Paysafe, iDEBIT, Trustly and QIWI are the most common e-wallets. Then there’s Bitcoin and altcoins for crypto and wire transfer for bank payments.
You can deposit as little as $10 at many online casinos in Canada. The maximum you can deposit varies from one payment method to the other. Most operators don’t charge deposit fees, but always check to confirm.
Withdrawals are a little bit complex. First, you can expect some fees. Then there’s a waiting period between when you request a withdrawal and when you receive your money. Due to that, it’s essential to use a casino that offers fast payments.
Takeaway: depositing and withdrawing money at Canadian gambling websites is convenient. But you should read about an operator’s policies to ensure you agree before you deposit your hard-earned money.
#6: Gambling Regulators: How do they Protect Canadians?
Earlier on, we mentioned that every genuine casino in Canada has a regulator. If based in Britain, they have a license from the UK Gambling Commission. In Malta, the Gaming Authority oversees new and existing operators.
Gambling regulators perform background checks to ensure casino owners and managers have no history of committing crimes. They then require each operator to offer fair games, have functioning customer service and systems to protect players’ data.
In other words, regulators play an essential role in ensuring you play at fair and safe casinos. They even audit games to confirm they are fair. However, independent auditors such as eCOGRA, Thwarte and iLab also exist to confirm casinos have fair games.
Crucially, regulators also come into play when you have problems with a casino. Let’s say you win, and an operator refuses to pay you. Or you might develop an addiction, and the operator encourages instead of helps you get out of the situation. The UKGC and the MGA can resolve these issues.
Takeaway: Only use licensed gambling sites. That’s because regulators play essential roles in ensuring you receive quality services. They also intervene when you have problems with a specific operator.
Summary and Conclusion
In Canada, online gambling is a grey area. It’s mentioned in the laws, and that means it’s also not banned. This is something lawmakers and lawyers have often mentioned openly, so you can be sure it’s safe to play online gambling and casino games in Canada.
Gambling Addiction
Addiction to gambling is linked to a range of serious personal and social harms such as depression and suicide, bankruptcy, family breakup, domestic abuse, assault, fraud, theft, and even homelessness. These effects can be devastating to the individual as well as their friends, family, workplace or community. That is why the Canada Safety Council considers gambling addiction a community safety and crime prevention issue.
People with gambling problems may cover up or lie when asked where they have been, or where money has gone. This makes problem gambling hard to identify. Families often know something is wrong — but not what is wrong.
You could be living or working with a compulsive gambler and not know it until the problems are out of control. It’s crucial to recognize the signs and know how to get help.
“People who gamble excessively fear their loved ones will find them out,” says Robert Murray, Manager of CAMH’s Problem Gambling Project. “This drives them deeper into hiding and further into debt. They hope against hope a big win will end their problems.”
CAMH has devised a simple checklist for the public to take a look at to help determine whether a family member or colleague has a gambling problem. The more clues you see, the more likely that gambling is a problem needing to be addressed:
- Is your family member or colleague often late for work or school?
- Are they gone for long unexplained periods?
- Do they neglect responsibilities, and make excuses?
- Have they withdrawn from family and friends?
- Do they have mood swings and sudden outbursts of anger?
- Is there less money available, even though income has not changed?
- Is money missing from the house or from bank accounts?
- Are they secretive and bad tempered about money?
- Do they have money conflicts with others?
- Do they talk about gambling all the time?
- Do they lie about gambling?
Counseling is the first step to regaining control of the problems that gambling has caused, and is the best way to find a long-term solution. Free treatment, including counseling, is available to anyone affected by gambling, including family members. A list of gambling help lines across Canada is available at: www.ccsa.ca ; search for “gambling help lines.”
Problem Gambling Helplines in Canada
Confidential and open 24 hours a day.
Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission Helpline
1-866-332-2322
British Columbia Problem Gambling Information and Referral Service
1-888-795-6111
Manitoba Gambling Helpline
1-800-463-1554
New Brunswick Problem Gamblers Hotline
1-800-461-1234
Newfoundland and Labrador Helpline
1-888-899-4357
Nova Scotia Toll-Free Gambling Helpline
1-888-347-8888
Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Helpline
Ontario Problem Gambling Helpline
1-888-230-3505
Prince Edward Island Gambling Addiction Treatment Program
1-888-299-8399
Québec – Gambling Help and Referral
(514) 527-0140 Montreal and surrounding area
1-800-461-0140 and 1-866-767-5389 throughout province
Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Helpline
1-800-306-6789
Source: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
Online sports betting ignored by Canadian government while U.S. acts
Social Sharing
Multi-billion-dollar industry unregulated north of the border
Editor's Note: This is the third in a three-part series of stories on sports betting in Canada. Here, we examine how other governments in North America are handling the industry in comparison to the hands-off approach in this country.
While the Canadian government does little, if anything, to address online sports betting, its neighbour to the south has made efforts to curb what has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business.
The United States tackled the issue a decade ago, during the online poker boom, after casino operators in Nevada — the only state where full sports betting is legal — realized how much revenue they were losing to offshore gambling websites. Under intense lobbying from the gaming industry, Congress acted quickly and in 2006 passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which made it illegal to accept payments connected to betting over the internet in states where gambling is prohibited.
"[Congress] said, hey, you offshore operators, your business is illegal, you are violating federal laws. But these operators put their thumbs and fingers on their nose and waved at the United States," says Dan Etna, co-chair of the Sports Law Group at Herrick Feinstein in New York City.
That's why Congress made sure the law targeted businesses they could actually control — the banks and other companies who facilitate payments between online betting sites and their customers.
"They would go after PayPal, or if you were making a payment through Chase Manhattan or TD Bank in the United States, whoever was providing a funds transfer from your account to this offshore website was violating federal law," Etna explains. "That's how Congress [policed] the offshore sites, by crimping something they had domestic control over."
Etna acknowledges this hasn't eliminated Americans' ability to partake in online gambling, which the law does not say is a crime from the bettors' perspective (like in Canada, no American gambler has ever been prosecuted for placing an offshore bet). Many offshore sites stopped taking U.S. customers, but others carried on, and savvy gamblers can employ workarounds like proxy servers and certain third-party payment companies that allow bettors to top up their online accounts by acting as middle men between customers and their banks.
In other words, there are ways around the law.
NBA wants 'different approach' to sports betting
Acknowledging this reality, there is a push within the United States to expand the boundaries of full legalized sports betting beyond Nevada. (Limited forms of sports gambling are legal in Delaware and Montana, which offer games operated by the state lottery.)
In 2014, New Jersey passed a law that would allow sports betting within the state's borders — an effort to bolster the flagging casino and horse racing industries there. The move challenged a 1992 federal statute that prohibits state-sponsored sports betting except in Nevada, Oregon, Delaware and Montana, which were grandfathered in.
So far, legal challenges have prevented the law from taking effect, and all four major North American pro sports leagues — as well as the NCAA, which governs collegiate sports in the U.S. — have opposed New Jersey's efforts. But a ruling from a federal court panel is expected soon, and if New Jersey wins the case it could conceivably begin offering sports betting immediately and other states could soon follow.
The stakes are huge. Consider this: the Nevada Gaming Control Board says sports books in the state set new monthly records for handle (the amount of money they accept in wagers) in each of the first three months of 2016, including $459 million US in March alone. The books won $19.6 million in January, $28 million in February and $9.7 million in March.
Etna says states like New Jersey want a piece of this pie, especially when many forms of gambling are already legal.
"It doesn't make any sense to me as to why you can have a state lottery, why you can have state-licensed horse racing, but you can't bet on the Maple Leafs game against the Rangers," he says.
The NBA may want in on the action too. While it continues to oppose New Jersey's efforts, it is alone among the big four leagues in publicly recognizing the billions American are gambling on sports and calling for changes. In an op-ed in the New York Times, commissioner Adam Silver called for a "different approach" to sports gambling. Silver pointed to the estimated $400 billion US being wagered illegally on sports in the United States ever year, saying "there is an obvious appetite for a safe and legal way to bet on sports."
Silver called on Congress to "adopt a federal framework that allows states to authorize betting on professional sports, subject to strict regulatory requirements and technological safeguards."
Canada slow to react
Such an appetite for change does not exist in Canada, where an estimated $4 billion per year is being bet through offshore sports books.
Online sports gambling thrives in Canada's legal 'grey zone'
In Ottawa, a private members bill sponsored by NDP MP Brain Masse that would allow betting on single games was recently introduced. Several provinces currently allow sports gambling through their lottery companies, but bettors are limited to parlays, where they must correctly predict the outcomes of multiple games. The provincial lotteries also offer poorer payouts on those parlays than bettors can get with offshore websites.
"Just modernize it and move it towards a regulated market," Masse says. "So that this offshore betting activity is actually translated back to the taxpayer."
The Liberal government, though, says it opposes the bill.
"Nobody wants to be out front saying we need to expand gaming," says Toronto lawyer Michael Lipton.
But there is a way forward, says Lipton, and it starts with offering a better product to bettors.
"The way they have to do this is to say we need to protect the public, we need to gain more revenue, and the way to do that is to step in and regulate single-game sports bets. The [provincial] lottery corporations, as long as they have a monopoly, at least make them competitive because right now they can't compete against offshore sports books."
Another option, Lipton says, is to end the provincial lottery monopoly and introduce a licensing system in which private betting companies can operate and be regulated by the government. A system like this currently exists in the U.K., where betting is widely accepted and readily available at brick-and-mortar private retail outlets.
The daily fantasy challenge
But in Canada, nothing seems to move quickly when it comes to gambling. While authorities and regulators continue, after two decades, to wrestle with how to handle the billions of dollars being bet through offshore sports books, other challenges have emerged.
The rising popularity of so-called "daily fantasy sports" sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, where users wager and can win money based on their ability to predict the performances of individual players, has many asking whether this activity is a form of sports gambling. The growing industry has seized on a loophole in the UIGEA that deems fantasy sports a "game of skill," not of chance. When the act was passed in 2006, lawmakers wanted to allow fantasy sports games to continue to operate as most were relatively low-stakes, season-long games played among friends. They couldn't, or at least didn't, foresee the creation of the multi-billion-dollar daily fantasy business.
In the U.S., some states have declared daily fantasy a form of gambling and deemed it illegal. Both DraftKings and FanDuel, the industry leaders, agreed to stop operating paid contests in New York under pressure from the state. Other states, like Virginia, have moved to regulate the activity and collect revenue.
"Right now, daily fantasy sports is all over the place. It's like whack-a-mole where you think you've got one state figured out and then the next state does something contrary," says Etna. "So you end up with this patchwork quilt — it's legal, it's illegal, it's legal but only with certain conditions."
But at least U.S. lawmakers are paying attention, trying to figure out an emerging trend. In Canada, much like with offshore sports gambling, there has been no move to do anything about daily fantasy sports, even as it explodes in popularity.
For many pushing for change on the Canadian sports gambling landscape, it's another missed opportunity.
Gambling Addiction
What is gambling addiction?
For the most part, gambling in moderation is a socially acceptable behavior. Gambling addiction is another story. If left untreated, a gambling addiction can negatively affect your financial situation, relationships, and other aspects of your life.
According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, problem gambling affects more than 2 percent of Americans. If you have a gambling addiction, you may feel an uncontrollable urge to buy lottery tickets, visit casinos, play slot machines, bet on sports, or gamble online. The specific type and frequency of your gambling behavior may vary. But in general, you will be unable to control that behavior. You will continue gambling, even in the face of negative social, financial, or legal consequences.
The majority of people with gambling addictions are men. But this type of addiction can also affect women.
People with addictions often try to hide their condition, but a gambling addiction can be difficult to conceal. You may need frequent access to casinos or online gambling pools. Even if you gamble at home when no one is around, your addiction may begin to show itself in other areas of your life.
If you have a gambling addiction, you may display some or all of the following behaviors:
- obsessing over any type of gambling
- gambling to feel better about life
- failing to control your gambling
- avoiding work or other commitments to gamble
- neglecting bills and expenses and using the money for gambling
- selling possessions to gamble
- stealing money to gamble
- lying about your gambling habit
- feeling guilty after a gambling session
- taking bigger and bigger risks while gambling
You may also experience the following consequences from your gambling addiction:
- disintegrating relationships or friendships
- loss of house, job, car, or other personal possessions
People with gambling addiction don’t always gamble frequently. But when they do start gambling, they may be unable to stop.
When you have a gambling addiction, an area of your brain called the insula may be overactive. This hyperactive region may lead to distorted thinking. This can cause you to see patterns in random sequences and continue gambling after near misses.
Your brain may respond to the act of gambling in the same way that an alcoholic’s brain responds to a drink. The more you feed your habit, the worse it will become.
With the right treatment, gambling addiction is manageable. Unlike someone with a food addiction, you don’t need the object of your addiction to survive. You simply need to learn how to develop a healthy and balanced relationship with money.
It’s important for you to quit gambling completely, since even occasional gambling can lead to a relapse. A program of recovery can help you develop impulse control. In general, gambling addiction is treated with similar methods as other addictions.
Inpatient rehabilitation program
Although not frequently required, some people find that they need the structure afforded by an inpatient program at a treatment center to overcome a gambling addiction. This type of program may be especially helpful if you’re unable to avoid casinos or other gambling venues without help. You will need to stay in the treatment facility for a set amount of time, anywhere from 30 days to an entire year.
Outpatient rehabilitation program
Outpatient treatment programs are more commonly used by people with gambling addictions. In this type of program, you will attend classes at a facility. You may also attend group sessions and one-on-one therapy. You will continue to live at home and participate in school, work, or other daily activities.
Twelve-step programs
Gamblers Anonymous (GA), or other 12-step programs, may also help you overcome your gambling addiction. This type of program may be especially helpful if you can’t afford more intensive rehabilitation options. It follows the same model as Alcoholics Anonymous, helping you build a support network of other recovered gambling addicts. You may meet with group members one or more times per week.
Psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy
In addition to group counseling or support sessions, you may also benefit from one-on-one therapy. Gambling addiction can stem from deeper emotional or avoidance issues. You will need to deal with these underlying issues in order to change self-destructive patterns, including your gambling addiction. Counseling gives you a place to open up and address these problems.
Medication
In some cases, you may need medication to help you overcome your gambling urges. Your gambling addiction might result from an underlying mental health condition, such as bipolar disorder. In these cases, you must learn to manage the underlying condition to develop better impulse control.
Lifestyle changes
Dealing with the financial consequences of gambling is sometimes the hardest part of the recovery process. In the beginning, you may need to turn over financial responsibilities to a spouse or trusted friend. You may also need to avoid places and situations that can trigger your urge to gamble, such as casinos or sporting events.
Yes, Shopping Can Be Addictive
There's a reason that your New Year's budget is so hard to keep .
By now the notion of "retail therapy" has become a modern cliché. And yet it's the rare popular idea that is actually backed by scientific evidence.
As usual, the brain chemical to credit or blame for our pleasure—in this case, the pleasure of shopping—is dopamine. The neurotransmitter surges when you're considering buying something new—anticipating a reward, in other words. Sales, by the way, give us an even harder kick. "We're constantly comparing what we expect with what we actually perceive," says Columbia University professor of neurobiology David Sulzer. So when an unforeseen benefit enters our cognitive field—30 percent off!—the dopamine really spikes.
The biological point isn't to land you in debtor's prison; dopamine encourages exploration by rewarding us when we stumble upon something salutary. This chemical response is commonly called "shopper's high," Sulzer says, likening it to the rush that can come with drinking or gambling.
Interestingly, your brain calculates how buying an object of desire will feel before you consciously consider whether to purchase it. Uma Karmarkar, a neuroscientist and assistant professor at Harvard Business School, gives this example: Perhaps you've set a strict budget for yourself after New Year's, but then you encounter something delectable and zap— your neurological flares go off, best-laid plans be damned.
While you can't see inside your own brain as you ponder a $900 leather jacket, researchers like Karmarkar can. In an illuminating 2007 study, neuroscientists scanned people's brains as they considered a range of products and noted, first, that a region called the nucleus accumbens—aka, the pleasure center—showed more activity. That's to be expected, but here's where things get interesting. When the study volunteers were given prices for the items, the part of their prefrontal cortex associated with executive functioning, particularly decision-making, lit up, as did the insula, an area implicated in processing pain. And subjects with the busiest insulas were most likely to decide against the purchase. It's a nerdy way to think about something you know intuitively: There are times when the pain of parting with your hard-earned cash outweighs the pleasure of new stuff. Put another way, spending really can hurt.
A new area of psychological research focuses on shopping addiction.
For some people, though, the immediate gratification of shopping always seems to outweigh the reckoning of suffering. A new area of psychological research focuses on shopping addiction, a surprisingly controversial concept, according to UCLA neuropsychologist Robert Bilder, PhD. Not so long ago, excessive shopping was understood to be a compulsion; now experts like Bilder argue that it's an addiction. To call something an addiction suggests that "developing a tolerance" for it is possible, Bilder says—that "it requires a larger dose to get the same effect. You find yourself needing more and more."
The culprit, according to other brain-imaging studies, such as a 2010 report in Science, may be faulty dopamine receptors: Those who tend toward impulsivity experience a bigger release of the neurotransmitter than the rest of us, which leads them to crave another hit.
So how to break an addictive cycle? In a 2015 survey of 23,537 adults published in Frontiers in Psychology, Bilder and his colleagues found that those who met the criteria for shopping addiction were also more likely to have symptoms of depression or anxiety. To that end, he recommends cognitive behavioral therapy, talk therapy, or perhaps antidepressants (though they haven't yet been proven effective for shopping addiction).
Of course, not every shopper is a junkie. The key is, know thyself. A 2014 study in Applied Research in Quality of Life that summarized the research on happiness and consumerism noted, for example: "Luxury consumption positively affects an individual's subjective well-being." Still, guess what science says will make you even happier? Giving your money away.
This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of ELLE.
So, let's define, what was the most valuable conclusion of this review: Gambling Addiction In Canada - Easy guide to understanding and diagnosing gambling addiction, with a list of useful problem gambling resources & websites. at How Does Your Brain React To Online Gambling? in Canada
Contents of the article
- Problem Gambling and Addiction in Canada
- What Is A Gambling Addiction?
- How Is It Defined?
- What Are the Warning Signs of a...
- Defensive Behavior: Denial
- Aggressive and Accusative Reactions
- Misdirection and Confusion Technique:...
- And The Most Dangerous Of All Denials…
- Confronting the Addict: Intervention
- Take the Self Diagnosis Test
- Positive Steps for Recovery
- Avoiding Relapse
- Designed to deceive: How...
- Uncertainty as its own reward in the...
- Lights and sounds egg you on
- Feeling like a winner while you’re...
- Almost: Near-miss effect and chasing...
- Gambling and its games
- Mental Health
- US / World
- Consumer News
- Policy / Biz
- Drugs
- Healthy Living
- A Brain Chemical That May Cause...
- Canadian gambling facts that you might...
- Page contents
- Gambling Facts Canada Edition
- No. 1 Entertainment Industry
- Canada Gambling Demographics
- A Dealer’s Life Behind the Scenes
- Canada’s Tax Law on Gambling Winnings
- Interesting Casino Superstitions
- Online Gambling in Canada—Six Things...
- #1: Online Gambling Legality:...
- #2: Taxes: Are online Gamblers...
- #3: Games: What casino Games...
- #4: Bonuses and Free Spins: Are...
- #5: Safe Banking Options: How...
- #6: Gambling Regulators: How do...
- Gambling Addiction
- Online sports betting ignored by...
- Social Sharing
- Multi-billion-dollar industry...
- NBA wants 'different approach' to...
- Canada slow to react
- The daily fantasy challenge
- Gambling Addiction
- Inpatient rehabilitation program
- Outpatient rehabilitation program
- Twelve-step programs
- Psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral...
- Medication
- Lifestyle changes
- Yes, Shopping Can Be Addictive
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