Virgin Casino Bans Canadians

Granted, this is not about poker, but it is odd/significant enough to post.  Virgin Casino, part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, has made the decision to bar Canadian players from its online casino.  Below is a copy of an e-mail sent to Virgin Casino’s Canadian customers. 

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Dear Player, 

We are sorry to inform you that we will be suspending all accounts registered by players from Canada effective from the 13th April 2007. Due to recent developments in the global Internet gaming environment and following a review of the legalities of online gaming within Canada, we have determined that it is inappropriate for us to continue accepting online wagers from Canada.

We will be suspending all Canadian accounts on 13th April 2007 09:00 EST, we ask that you please withdraw any funds before this date and time.

Neteller has also announced that it will cease processing Canadian transactions from 9th April 2007. If you use NETELLER to transact with us you will need to withdraw any remaining funds in your account BEFORE the 9th April 2007.

After the 13th April, you will not be able to login into your account. However, you will be able to initiate a withdrawal of your funds by calling our customer support center at +44 800 458 6003

We appreciate your patronage and apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards

Customer Service Team

Virgin Casino

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 The odd part about this is that the specific “legalities of online gaming in Canada” are not listed, as was the case with Neteller’s recent announcement.  The statement is as vague as vague can be.  As far as anyone can tell, the closest Canada has come to banning online gambling is its physical proximity to the United States.

 Hopefully this will not become a trend and is just the result of a couple companies overreacting to essentially nothing.

Originally published 5:17 PM Wednesday, April 04, 2007