Ontario Illegal Gambling Ring Busted

Ontario Provincial Police raided an apartment near the University of Waterloo on October 17, arresting two young men for “keeping a common gaming house,” and charging nine others for gambling.  A poker table, chips, cash, playing cards, and marijuana were confiscated in the raid. 

The police had received complaints from both players who felt they were getting fleeced by the two men running the poker game, as well as from other people who were simply aware of the game’s existence.  According to Sergeant Bill Sword, a detective with the Ontario Provincial Police, Organized Crime Section, Illegal Gambling Unit, police had reason to believe that the operators of the “card room” were profiting from the poker games, something that is expressly illegal.   

Sword estimated that because of how well the operation was run, the men that ran the game could have been making $150 per hour.  He added, “The small operations [such as this] without exaggeration are making up to about a quarter of a million per table per year.” 

Those charged with gambling would simply have to pay a fine if convicted, whereas the two men charged with actually running the card room could face up to two years in jail.