Monday, December 18, 2006

Would-be online gambling advertisers in the Ontario province of Canada will
need to update their knowledge on what is and is not permitted following the
passage of a consumer protection bill containing advertising restrictions,
which was passed by the provincial legislature this week. According to an
assessment in p2pnet.net News by Michael Geist, who holds the Canada
Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa,
the new legislation contains provisions prohibiting the advertising of
Internet gambling sites. The provisions underwent important changes at
committee level, however, so that the final bill looks somewhat different
from the one that was introduced in the fall. Geist writes that when first
introduced, the bill contained a blanket prohibition on advertising an "an
Internet site that operates an internet gaming business contrary to the
Criminal Code." The bill defined advertising as: (a) the promotion by print,
publication, broadcast, telecommunication or distribution by any means, of
information intended to promote the use of an internet gaming business, (b)
self-promotion and a contract under which one person obtains the services of
another to develop or distribute the advertisement, (c) a link in a website
intended to promote the use of an internet gaming business. However, after
the committee stage, the bill contained some important changes. While the
blanket prohibition remains unchanged, the definition of advertising has
been narrowed to instances where the advertising originates in Ontario or is
primarily intended for Ontario residents. In Geist's opinion, the positive
effect of this change will be to exclude the vast majority of Internet
gambling advertising, which neither originates in Ontario nor is primarily
targeted at residents of the province. The prohibition against linking has
also been narrowed by excluding links "generated as the result of a search
carried out by means of an internet search engine." In other words, Google
and other search engines won't be liable for links to gambling sites
generated through search queries.

Geist concludes that most Internet gambling sites are therefore unaffected,
unless they specifically target Ontario with their advertising. Instead,
there are two obvious effects.

Offline, it seems likely that Internet gambling newspaper and radio
promotion, common in some newspapers and on sports radio stations, will
disappear.

Online, Internet search companies and websites will likely refuse
advertisements that specifically target Ontario. Such targeting may occur
either by way of the promotion itself or by using geo-identifying
technologies.

This law may also capture Ontario bloggers and websites that focus on
Internet gambling. Those sites won't be able to feature Internet gambling
advertising and may even face liability for posting links to various
gambling sites.