In 2018, the annual revenue per gambler in Canada was $503. Why are Canadians gambling in such large numbers lately? Find out here.

The numbers show that Canadians make about $ 31 billion a year through gambling. This puts them at the top ten list of the countries that gamble the most in the world, partly due to the relaxed rules in the country. Though online gambling in Canada is not legal per se, offshore licensed casinos are allowed to offer their services. A few land-based casinos operate in the country with the blessings of the government. 

Here are four reasons why Canadians gamble the way they do.

It is Safe

The US has made its stand in most states as far as online gambling goes – it is illegal, so most people know not to do it in the states they reside. Canada is different because it has not made this activity illegal. What is clear is that the government has not made steps to regulate it actively. That said, gamblers can count on the best online casinos in Canada to protect their money and personal information when they play at those sites. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) ensures that each site that offers online gambling services follows a set of rules and guidelines.

Thanks to this licensing body that is also in charge of land-based casinos in Canada, you can expect your winnings to be honoured each time you play in the country. You want to ensure your preferred site is licensed and the games audited for fairness. The banking methods are also favourable to Canadian gamblers.

Relaxed Banking Methods

Canadians have PayPal, MasterCard, Visa cards, Entropay, and Neteller as banking methods when working with online casinos, and they are usually paid in the Canadian or US dollar. Both currencies are favourable, and the methods used are even better because they guarantee fast withdrawals. You also notice from the numbers mentioned above that residents must have good disposable incomes to spend at casinos. This makes it possible to gamble without risking addiction.

Easy Access to Online Casino Sites

The Canadian gambling scene has hundreds of online casinos that are licensed and safe to play at when you do your due diligence. Since online gaming is a grey area, players are not prohibited from accessing these sites as long as they are above 18 years old. Most of these sites offer games targeting the Canadian gambling industry, which is a plus for gamblers. The games you find here are mobile-compatible, which makes it easy to play from your mobile device at any time or place. Slots, table games, and poker tournaments are all available from mobile platforms, and this accessibility increases the number of gamblers in the country. 

Earnings are not Taxed

Since online gaming is a grey area, it is not regulated well enough to be taxed. This means that all the real money players make from gambling is pocketed. The only way one pays tax on winnings is if they declared gambling income as their primary income. As long as this is the case in the country, the numbers will keep improving, and residents will keep making more from this form of entertainment. Apart from the usual gambling activities from land-based and online casinos, Canadians enjoy horse racing and sports betting, which the government regulates.

Conclusion

Even with so many Canadians gambling today, it has not been declared a national disaster or a reason to panic yet. Though at least 75% of the country’s residents have gambled at one point in their lives, they do it responsibly to prevent addiction. The rewards from all forms of gambling are quite enticing, but they are better when you play responsibly. Many Canadians seem to have mastered this.

Online players from across the world are enjoying the growing number of gaming platforms that they can access within just a few clicks. With each passing day, the Internet community gets another operator worth exploring due to its incredible welcome bonuses and selection of games.

However, many online dwellers bump into fraudulent websites from time to time. So, we need to ask the question – Can players do something to protect themselves while playing games online?

Since many players are holding back from exploring new platforms in fear of being scammed, we’ll take a look at some things that they can do to stop worrying about their security while playing online games.

Do A Background Check Of The New Website

Even though you might think there is nothing that you can do to see if the gaming website can be trusted or not, this simply isn’t true. For example, if you want to explore a new online casino platform, there are several things that you can do. Firstly, you can see if the operator in question has a gambling license. Every casino operator that is reliable will have a gambling license such as the UKGC license, Malta Gambling Lisencese, or others. Moreover, players can read online reviews from specialized websites to see what professional reviews and other users think about that online casino.  Players can visit Play Safe Gambling Canada after it launches or other similar sites to see what are the safest online casinos that are currently on the market. Additionally, other clues that can tell you if you have chosen the right gambling website are a great number of available games, safe payment options, and a number of different bonus promotions for new and existing users.

Protect Yourself From Phishing

Phishing has been a major problem, not only for gamers but for big companies too. A phishing attack includes a fraudulent action in order to collect your personal data and later use it for personal gain. Most phishing attacks are conducted via email. Moreover, the one who’s behind the attack will send an email presenting itself as a big-name company looking for your personal information like user name and password. Online players can receive an email claiming that it’s the website where they play online games, claiming that they can get a special bonus if they provide the needed information. People who open this email and provide the information that the hacker asked of them, are at risk of being locked out of their own accounts.

The solution to this problem is really easy. All you need to do is to remember that no trustworthy company would ask for your email or password to give you a reward. Additionally, if the email contains a link, you should also avoid clicking on it. Lastly, if the offer seems appealing and you are not sure if you\re dealing with phishing or not, you can always contact the website’s customer support and ask them if the email came from them or not.

Be Aware of Viruses

One of the oldest ways that hackers conduct cyber-attacks is by using viruses, Trojans, and worms. Even though malware of this kind has been present in the virtual world, there are still many people who are not familiar with how these things work so they fall into the trap that can cost them their PC, laptop, or another device. Moreover, there are viruses that were specially designed to attack online players, such as Steam Stealer.

The first thing that you can do to protect yourself from these viruses is to install an antimalware program on your mobile device or PC. There are many antimalware programs that you can install, however, you should make sure to always download the program from their official website.

Don’t Be A Victim Of Password Cracking

Using a unique and hard-to-guess password is crucial when it comes to protecting your gaming account. Another way that hackers use to attack your gaming account is simple password cracking. They use a program that is based on a trial-and-error method to hack into your account. Putting it simply, the program tries different combinations until it finds the right one. So, you should avoid passwords like 1234567, password1, or the one that includes your first or last
name combined with a number.

Therefore, make sure that you have a strong password or use a password generator. Moreover, if the website in question has a two-step authentication you can activate this option, so as to have another layer of security on your gaming account.

Avoid Using Public Wi-Fi When Gaming

Public Wi-Fi can be great for playing your favorite games when you are away from home. But you must keep in mind that this is an open network that you are sharing with plenty of strangers who can easily track the traffic on your phone if they have the skills. So, the simplest solution would be to avoid logging into your gaming account while you are using public wi-fi altogether.