legality of raked tables for all participants in ontario

[Abbaddabba]

Is anyone familiar with what the laws are with respect to individuals participating in a raked, unlicensed game in ontario?

The player themselves. Not the people running it.

Ive been told a lot of things by a lot of different people.

I know a few people who have been present during a bust, and they were let off without anything. I believe that it is illegal and you can potentially have charges pressed, but what would those charges be?

[jj_frap]

Having more functioning brain cells than every Premier we've had since Bill Davis? :-P (I'm a New Democrat, but I have no love for the Raetard.)

[TorontoCFE]

The police will usually not try to charge players.

It is the organizers that they are after.
The most you risk is confiscation or any and all money present.

You would likely be charged under section 201 of the Criminal Code:
201. (1) Every one who keeps a common gaming house or common betting house is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

Person found in or owner permitting use
(2) Every one who

(a) is found, without lawful excuse, in a common gaming house or common betting house, or

(b) as owner, landlord, lessor, tenant, occupier or agent, knowingly permits a place to be let or used for the purposes of a common gaming house or common betting house,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

The police probably wouldn't waste the time to prosecute summary conviction offences against a pile of people.

[Abbaddabba]

Thank you for the information. Using that, i was able to find the governmental listings of the criminal code.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/181043.html#rid-181052

Clearly it is both unlikely for a place to be busted, and in the event that it is - unlikely that individual players will be targetted. But for the sake of members of my family, i'd like to know the full extent to which players can conceivably be punished.

According to the documents, players are "guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."


I know very little about the Canadian legal system. What does a summary conviction mean, in this case?

Do you know of any articles from reputable sources that give any information with respect to what frequency players are held accountable?

[TorontoCFE]

Summary convictions are the Canadian equivalent of a misdemenor.

Penalties are fines for the most part.
They do not affect your ability to cross the border, etc.

Only from my personal experience and contacts, I have heard of only a couple of cases where players were charged and they were always dropped for cooperation and testifying if needed against the game's organizers