Section 202 of the Canadian Criminal Code says it's an offence to:
* use or allow a place to be used for recording or registering bets;
* import, buy, lease, keep or employ any machine, device or apparatus for gambling and betting or recording bets;
* record or register a bet or sell a pool;
* engage in bookmaking;
* print or provide information intended for use in bookmaking or betting upon any horse race, fight, game or sport, which takes place either in or outside of Canada;
* import to Canada any information intended or likely to promote gambling, bookmaking or betting on any horse race, fight, game or sport, which takes place either in or outside of Canada;
* advertise, print or otherwise give notice of any offer or inducement to bet on, guess or foretell the result of a contest;
* wilfully and knowingly send, transmit, deliver any message by radio, telegraph, telephone, mail or express that conveys any information related to bookmaking, betting or wagering;
* aid or assist in any manner in anything that is an offence under this section.
Section 206 says it's an offence to:
* make, print, advertise or publish any proposal, scheme or plan for disposing of any property by any mode of chance;
* send, mail or transmit any article that is used for carrying out any proposal or plan for disposing of any property by any mode of chance;
* induce any person to hazard any money or property on the result of any dice game, three-card monte, coin table or wheel of fortune.
The punishment for anyone found guilty of an offence under these sections is imprisonment of up to a maximum of two years.
It is not illegal to place a bet or gamble at an online gaming site as a player.
Government-licensed facilities, such as casinos and horse racing tracks, are exempt from the applicable parts of Sections 202 and 206. Newspapers, magazines and periodicals published in good faith primarily for purposes other than gambling or betting are also exempt from the applicable parts.
The problem for law enforcement officials is that the Criminal Code's gambling sections don't deal with the Internet specifically.
"It's a very dated section of the Code," said Detective-Sergeant Dave Taylor of the OPP's Illegal Gaming Unit. "It was obviously written long before the word Internet was thought of.
"Some rewording to meet today's technology would make life a lot simpler for everyone involved," he added.