FIRST NATIONS GAMING
G aming and betting laws in Canada have seen significant legislative changes in the past few years, and this trend of upheaval is showing no signs of slowing down. Notable recent reforms include single-event sports betting becoming legalized on August 27, 2021, and Ontario’s regulated iGaming regime launching on April 4, 2022, which allows for private iGaming operators and gaming related suppliers to register with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario in order to provide iGaming products to residents of Ontario. The Canadian legal gaming landscape and laws recognizing Indigenous rights are about to undergo a potentially enormous change if Bill S-268 (the “Bill”), entitled “An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Indian Act”, becomes law. The Bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code of Canada in order to provide the governing body of a First Nation with “exclusive authority to conduct and manage a lottery scheme on its reserve and to license the conduct and management of a lottery scheme by other persons and entities on its reserve”, so long as the governing body of that First Nation provides notice of its intention to do so to the government of Canada and the government of any province in which the reserve is located. The Bill seeks also to amend the Indian Act to grant the council of the band authority to make bylaws regarding the operation, conduct, and management of those proposed lottery schemes.
collectively known as Inuit Nunangat. “Métis” does not have a universally accepted meaning. “Métis” may be used to describe the Métis people as descendants of the historic Métis Nation. Some may use “Métis” to describe all persons of mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous ancestry who identify themselves as Métis. Although the Bill recognizes the inherent and treaty rights of all Indigenous peoples, the Bill proposes providing the governing body of a First Nation the exclusive authority described above. Gaming in Canada today Currently, the Criminal Code of Canada makes gaming and betting illegal in Canada unless the gaming activity is conducted and managed by a provincial government, subject to some exceptions. In order to stay on-side of the Criminal Code provisions outlawing gaming generally (and on-side of the constitutional authority granted to the Provinces under our Constitution), the Provinces must be the operating mind of the gaming activity. Any lottery schemes in Canada must currently, therefore, be conducted and managed by a provincial government. Even on their own reserve lands, First Nations currently cannot offer gaming products like lotteries without them being conducted and managed by a Province. The Provinces have jurisdiction to pass gaming legislation to govern gaming within that province, such as B.C.’s Gaming Control Act and Regulations. However, the Provinces are currently required to conduct and manage all gaming activities offered and must take on a conduct and management role even in partnerships with offshore gaming operators such as those in Ontario’s new iGaming regime. The Provinces cannot unilaterally amend the Criminal Code of Canada to change who may conduct and managing gaming in Canada because the Criminal Code is federal legislation. Bill S-268, therefore, would end the Provincial governments’ effective monopoly on the conduct and management of lotteries in Canada.
There is a distinction among First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.
“Indigenous peoples” is a term for all of the original peoples of Canada and their descendants. “First Nation” refers to a group of Indigenous peoples that the Canadian federal government officially recognizes as an administrative unit under the Indian Act, or that functions as such without official status. The term excludes Inuit and Métis peoples. “Inuit” refers to a circumpolar people who live primarily in four regions of Canada: the Nunavut territory, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region,
PAGE 35
IMGL MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2023
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker