Quebec Bill Would Force Internet Firms To Block Access To Online Gaming Sites (montrealgazette.com) 100
New submitter rotoblobule writes that in order to help Quebec's lottery service fight against illegal gaming sites, "the Quebec government is currently passing bill 74, which will impose mandatory banning by internet providers of a list of online gaming sites." Here's stories about the pending legislation in French and English, and a relevant excerpt from the bill itself: "To monitor online gambling, the Consumer Protection Act is amended to require Internet service providers to block access to illegal gambling sites entered on a list drawn up by the Societe des loteries du Quebec, which must report...if service providers fail to comply with the Act."
Re:Anyone wanna bet? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't believe that people in USA are so stupid that they actually believe that only english exist in the world.... Wait, yes I believe it !
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If you find someone in Quebec who only knows a few words of English, chances are those words will be swear words, and will be used fluently. Of course, the majority of the population speaks English fluently, whether as first or second language, and is quite capable of laughing at the assnat.
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You've only been in Montreal, I assume. Nowhere near the majority of the population speaks English fluently in the rest of the province.
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You may be right. In 2011 according to Stats Can 51.8% of Quebeckers claimed to know only French. I apologize for not looking that up prior to posting. On the other hand, that number dropped a couple of percent between 2006 and 2011, so it's possible I'm right after all.
Also note, just because someone won't speak English to you doesn't mean they can't.
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Any restaurant that put "assmeat" in their menu would probably get their windows broken for anglicizing a French word. Then they would get a fine for having broken windows and having English too prominent in their menu.
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But there's a difference between speaking english and speaking english fluently. I'd bet you couldn't understand more than half of those who claim to speak english.
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You've only been in Montreal, I assume. Nowhere near the majority of the population speaks English fluently in the rest of the province.
The new generation of Quebecers are fluent in English and fully bi-lingual. They know that they are in the new era, where, if the job is not in your back yard, that you go to where the jobs are located. Most have a minimum of one year of university. Others have university or a "professional" vocational trade. Inter-marriage (English with French) results in bilingual households where one parent speaks to the kids in his/her mother tongue, and the other in their mother tongue.
Moreover, English TV is pervas
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If you find someone in Quebec who only knows a few words of English, chances are those words will be swear words, and will be used fluently. Of course, the majority of the population speaks English fluently, whether as first or second language, and is quite capable of laughing at the assnat.
LOL. When we swear, 100% of the words we use come from the catholic liturgy. We HATE religion with a passion, up here. So it's only natural that our pissed-offness be expressed with religious words.
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So assnat.qc.ca looks good to me
Some natural ass (excuse me; "ass naturel") would look good to me, too.
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I live in Quebec, you insensitive clod.
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Ha :) (Score:1)
Good one.
Re: Anyone wanna bet? (Score:1)
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To be fair, many in the world don't find Quebec French to be real French or even a real language, so I see where Americans would think Quebec French != French.
(Satirical nod to the history of Quebec vs Parisian)
Yo Grark
Re: Anyone wanna bet? (Score:1)
Yeah, not like their named their site after the British slang for urinating ('having a slash').
-Matt
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The whole province is broke from corruption so Loterie Quebec is getting leaned on to make more money.
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Well, Quebec is the only province in Canada that actually have a plan to counter corruption. Canada is a country build on corruption since 1867!
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yeah, that's working so well.
biggest source of organized crime in canada... but the counter corruption plan is working so well.
quebec is the useless festering shithole of canada.
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Quebec is the only province in Canada that needs to have a *plan* to counter corruption. The other provinces find regular laws keep it in check just fine. But when the government makes a public announcement that they HAVE to do business with the mafia because there aren't any legitimate sources for things like pavement, you need a special plan. Or another special plan. They come along every 30 years or so.
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Other provinces have major issues with corruption too. Ontario is in the midst of a developing scandal, where you've actually got lobbyists coming out in favour of campaign finance reform because they're tired of always getting shaken down for money by the Ontario liberal party.
Re:Right in the excerpt (Score:5, Informative)
I'm originally from Alberta, lots of relatives in Toronto, live in Quebec. "Scandals" in the other provinces are cute compared to what goes on here. But don't take my word for it, here's [www.cbc.ca] a CBC correspondent with middle east and Washington experience, who recently returned to Canada to live in Ottawa, who says the same thing. Bonus, there's a little video of one of our "potholes."
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The potholes here have their own lot numbers at the land registry!
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Yup. Montreal needs to become it's own province.
Political Power (Score:2)
Quebec due to its unique nature has a lopsided amount of political power in Canada. As a result so does much of the industry. Many of the scandals stem from Quebec industry trying to capitalize on that advantage, more less because they can.
As for this particular example, I don't see it so much as a scandal as just hypocritical really. If it weren't for many of the states in the US also with a similar ideology on online gambling (at least on the face of it) it probably wouldn't be tolerated for competition r
Re: Right in the excerpt (Score:1)
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And worth noting, from your link:
" Northern Europe emerges well in the index â€" itâ€(TM)s home to four of the top five countries.
But just because a country has a clean public sector at home, doesnâ€(TM)t mean it isnâ€(TM)t linked to corruption elsewhere.
Take Sweden for instance. It comes third in the index, yet the Swedish-Finnish firm TeliaSonera â€" 37 per cent owned by the Swedi
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Don't forget Hydro Quebec!
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the Consumer Protection Act
They got that wrong, the title should be The VPN Provider Full Employment Act.
Inaccurate headline (Score:2)
"Internet firms"? "Online gaming?" What a misleading headline.
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There is nothing "illegal" with these sites. They simply do not pay their Pizzo to the government of Québec, and it frustrates them, so they instigate fear in players so they think they're doing something illegal by playing on these sites. These sites have a license to operate, that can be from Curaçao, Cyprus, Panama or even Kahnawake (located in the province of... QUEBEC!), and they are not considered illegal, even by the law
Unenforceable (Score:2)
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It will last. The Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux du Quebec has the power to regulate this stuff and the Canadian government cannot do anything about provincial rules like this. This is all to promote their own gambling websites, of which the canadian gov gets their cut as well, unlike with those "illegal websites".
If the federal could do anything, we wouldn't have to be excluded from every giveaways ever just for living in Quebec due to the terrible laws we have over here.
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It will last. The Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux du Quebec has the power to regulate this stuff and the Canadian government cannot do anything about provincial rules like this.
It won't last. Canada is a WTO member. Antigua will sue and win, again.
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No.
QC does not have the power to enforce the legislation. They can pass all the laws they want but the ISPs only have to listen to the feds. It would take orders from Ottawa to make it so. Section 92.10 of the Constitution Act of 1867 grants Ottawa exclusive power over international and interprovincial transport and communication.
Now, if the gambling site is in QC then the Ass. Nat. can claim jurisdiction as this would be intraprovincial communication. Mmmmm, probably have to invoke the notwithstandi
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Yes. If the gambling site is in QC.
However, the province has no jurisdiction over internet providers and their networks even if the ISP has it's servers in the province. Ottawa has jurisdiction; end of story.
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It will last. The Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux du Quebec has the power to regulate this stuff and the Canadian government cannot do anything about provincial rules like this. This is all to promote their own gambling websites, of which the canadian gov gets their cut as well, unlike with those "illegal websites". If the federal could do anything, we wouldn't have to be excluded from every giveaways ever just for living in Quebec due to the terrible laws we have over here.
Nope, it won't last. Telecom is under FEDERAL regulation, so whenever an ISP will be told to block such and such website, they will say "va te faire foutre" (go fuck yourself), and when they'll be sued, they'll just point out that Québec has no jurisdiction.
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Provincial laws, regrettably, trump federal laws in a number of vaguely defined jurisdictions.
And in Canada all laws are trumped by a judge feeling sorry for someone.
They would have to ban VPN's too. (Score:2)
They would have to classify VPN's and proxies as ISP's and block all know non complaint ones. That's a hard problem unless you clamp down on speech like in China where they will eventually more or less block everything that isn't whitelisted. It is just not a problem that can be solved.
What you can do is invalidate financial transactions legally which will require the gamblers to send money ahead of time which means they won't get into credit card debit as easily. You can also try to track payouts back to p
Gamling, not gaming (Score:3)
Quebec Bill Would Force Internet Firms To Block Access To Online Gaming Sites
"To monitor online gambling,
"Gambling" is not the same thing as "gaming."
Can some editor do their job and fix this?
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Gaming has long been used to refer to games of chance. Well before video games existed. Given the context of the rest of the article, I think this is quite clear.
You know, table games, numbers games, etc etc.
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Gaming has long been used to refer to games of chance. Well before video games existed. Given the context of the rest of the article, I think this is quite clear.
Given where the summary has been posted, i.e. Slashdot, I'd say it's not clear at all.
Furthermore, as another AC has pointed out, headlines are traditionally what people read before they read summaries/articles, so no, the context isn't clear.
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Can some editor do their job and fix this?
The Nevada Gaming Control Board [wikipedia.org] would like to have a word with you. They would like to point out that "gaming" is the traditional word used in this context.
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The Nevada Gaming Control Board [wikipedia.org] would like to have a word with you. They would like to point out that "gaming" is the traditional word used in this context.
Well a) I don't think they do want a word with me and b) they can piss off, because it means something else now. Especially to the readership of Slashdot.
Will they Crack down on western union? (Score:2)
Will they Crack down on western union? and other places used to move the funds to the sites?
Re:Will they Crack down on western union? (Score:5, Funny)
Will they Crack down on western union?
That depends; are you "playing a game of chance" by using them to send stuff?
(Cha-fucking-ching...)
Government fighting to maintain its monopoly (Score:4, Informative)
I do not mind the lottery's continuing existence as a tax on people bad in Math. But I do resent the government monopoly on this particular business. Those "gaming sites" are not inherently evil — they are only illegal, because they compete with the state's offering...
And while the private casino slot machines pay back between 82% and 98% [wikipedia.org] of the money wagered by players, the state lotteries pay back [ncsl.org] from 49.5% to 73.6% (sorry, can't find a similar table for Canada)... If I ran such a racket, I'd try to smother the competition too, I suppose...
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"as a tax"
If someone other than the government is doing it, it's not a tax. I'm in favour of stupid people giving extra money to the government, to be used for the good of society (including me). I don't really like site-blocking regulations, but I would also prefer that the stupid tax actually benefit people here.
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The legal lotteries being discussed are government-owned, even if the actual operation is farmed out to private companies. No, if you really want to go Kefedokhles, it is not a tax because it is not mandatory...
Apparently, it does not do that [youtube.com] either... Or not enough, or something...
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Yes, the government run ones are. The ones operated out of Antigua, the blocking of which we are discussing here, aren't. That's why I said "If someone other the government is doing it, it's not a tax."
In most Canadian provinces [gamingpost.ca] lottery funds are distributed in the form of direct grants to communit
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they are only illegal, because they compete with the state's offering...
Yeah, and prostitution is only illegal, because it competes with the state's offering.... of marriage
Prohibition isn't about competing against the state, it's about competing against the Mob. Prohibition is a gangster's paradise.
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Quick look seems to indicate the law set the minimum at 83%, but it seems to be set at 92%.
"Le Règlement sur le taux de retour des loteries vidéo (c. L-6, r. 13) exige un taux de retour de 83 %."
So it's more bureaucratic control than money grabbing.
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Nice try, but no sigar!
Shame, you really, really, really wanna a sig a sigar
First child porn, now gambling, what's next? (Score:1)
Ohh that's right we also have copyright, 'hate' speech, and other content they want to censor. We might as well just give up our internet connections altogether. In the countries which censor the direction has always been leading to more political even if unpopular speech being censored. It doesn't matter if we're talking China, Europe, the United States, or Canada. Each country has its own methods of censoring its population. Canada has a 'voluntary' system where all the major ISPs were pressured into adop
A better link (CTV's take on the story) (Score:1)
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/quebec-bill-would-force-internet-firms-to-block-access-to-online-gaming-sites-1.2843255
"Critics say the Internet-censoring legislation -- unprecedented in Canada -- is a way for Quebec's state-owned gambling authority to block competition and could lead to governments across the country deciding what citizens can and can't view online."
"I think the (Quebec) government doesn't understand the Internet and frankly doesn't understand the importance of an open and free Internet," s
Steam, Origin, GOG Sue Poster (Score:2)
whats the french term for false positive?? (Score:2)
my issue with any kind of State Level Blocking is how is the list edited (and by whom??).
Sure you might want to block
CP
Hate Sites
AP (for those that are not Adult)
"Snuff" sites
Otherwise Criminal Sites
ect
but im sure the SlashMind could come up with some edge cases where something might LOOK LIKE a "blacklist" worthy site but isn't.
and thats not getting into the "Oops we blocked %otherparties% site at a critical time" type issue or the Admin being bribed to include/exclude a given site ie the op for
wwwdotpoup
It would be better for the rest of us. (Score:1)
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Quebec loves to waste tax payers money! (Score:1)
Ho hum (Score:2)
Im a ISP in Québec... (Score:1)
Look like loi 101 in Quebec. I hosted a website that was english only and language police came and give a fined to the company. After that we decide to host the website outside Quebec. Problem solved... Now my upstream provider are US based. So now let the game of cat and mouse start...
a bill from the Ministry of Truth ? (Score:2)
from TFS: "Quebec's lottery service"
How is this a 'service'? Who does it serve? Could it be . . . Satan?!?!
It seems to be a tax on the poor and ignorant. One that the state has usurped from entrepreneurial enterprises that at least offer an honest chance to win.
How does this 'Consumer Protection Act' protect consumers when there is less opportunity to win? Quebec is almost ready to sing the song of the Ministry of Truth:
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
What will be involved? (Score:2)
Seems to me the only way you can ban gambling sites is to do at at a high network layer so you can filter on content rather than IP.
Only problem with that is HTTPS would need to be cracked open by the ISP using a root cert they force you to install in your browser.
This may be the start of the slippery slope which will end at full circumvention of encrypted communications.
Title intentional bait for /. readers? (Score:1)
There's a world of a difference between an "online gaming site" and an "online gambling site". Maybe not to the outer world but anyone writing a /. post is intentionally using that title as click bait...
"Typical! Just Typical!" (John Cleese)