With talks of an online poker ban in Canada floating around, a ban similar to the one in place in the United states, GigaMedia Limited is unconcerned about the situation. The ban is looking to stop gambling in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake. The casino profits here topped $40,000,000 in 2007. That’s a huge chunk of change to put it mildly and a ban could change the face of available poker sites around the world.
Directly from pokerpages.com is the following statement:
GigaMedia’s statement came after a financial website on Monday suggested that the company might face the possibility of a revenue drop if Canada changes its hands-off policy toward online gambling licenses issued by Kahnawake and actively enforces its existing Criminal Code. GigaMedia said it could find no basis for the financial website’s statement.
The issue first gained media attention when earlier this month Canada’s National Post reported that Minister of Justice [Rob Nicholson] had asked his officials to examine the possibility of enforcing the Criminal Code provisions by imposing UIGEA-like payment restrictions between Canadian residents and ‘illegal’ online gaming sites.
This is certainly a topic that many will be following both in and outside of Canada. Many worry about poker bans and those we have seen in the United States have caused considerable worry among online poker players. Hopefully we can keep online poker alive and avoid such a ban. It is reassuring that GigaMedia is not worried, but they certainly don’t have the final say on such a topic. Take a stop over at the forums and see what other people have to say on the issue, I’m sure the more input people can get on the subject the better off the poker community will be as a whole.