As the Stanley Cup playoffs approach and the Major League Baseball season kicks off, British Columbians watching sports on TV are now used to the sight of regular sports gambling advertisements.
But a number of those advertisements are for betting platforms that aren’t legal in B.C. — where the only place to legally bet on sports is the B.C. Lottery Corporation’s online platform, PlayNow.
The prevalence of third-party gambling ads — which the BCLC plainly attributes to Ontario allowing the practice in 2022 — is so overwhelming, the lottery corporation cites illegal operators as the biggest factor in its online gambling revenue plateauing in recent years.
