According to the Toronto Star newspaper, under the lead of U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, Canada is facing pressure to begin regulating online casino gambling. Canada, which is host to the third largest licensor of online casinos and internet gambling sites in the world - the Kahnawake Gaming Commission of the Mohawk Indian Tribe - has openly expressed their disapproval of online gambling and the advertising of gaming sites in the past, but has never gone quite as far as the United States recently did with their legislative ban.

Ontario recently imposed a ban on the advertising of play-for-money online casino sites, which is certainly not the direction that proponents of the industry were hoping Canada government would not go. This was openly expressed by Jowell at the 'first ever online gambling summit,' which took place last week in London. Citing a UK research report, Jowell revealed there are nearly 2,300 gambling websites currently in operation and doing business across the globe. Of these, the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda has the most licensed sites totaling 537, Costa Rica is second largest with 474 sites, and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is in a close third with over 400 licensed gaming sites.

Kahnawake, which is located just outside of Montreal, is widely considered to be one of the most trustworthy and respected online casino licensors and gaming regulators in the business, having close ties with the reputable eCOGRA and Microgaming Casinos. Perhaps this is why the Canadian Attorney General has declared online casinos to be illegal, but has done nothing in terms of prosecutions and enforcement. Holding a similar stance to that of the United States Department of Justice which began its online gambling crackdown by first targeting large-scale advertising, and now most recently, payment processors and gambling sites themselves, Canada has now become a crucial "card" in the future of an internationally regulated online gambling industry.

Tessa Jowell's pressure on the Canadian government to implement a regulatory outline could not come at a better time. Although Canada's past actions show them going the opposite way of regulation, proponents for the online casino industry say they would not be surprised if Canada, much like Italy recently did, turned on a dime to embrace the industry, reap the benefits of a strategic taxing plan, and hold a better grasp on the prevention and treatment of underage and problem gambling. With the UK leading the way in contrast to a Republican Bush administration who has fallen out of favor with much of the rest of the world.