Did you know Canada is one of the best countries for online gamblers? Picture this. You can play all types of casino games in the country. You can also bet on sports. And if you win, you don’t get to pay taxes.
By comparison, gambling isn’t legal everywhere in the US. Where it’s legal, it’s usually sports betting. Also, you have to pay taxes on your winnings, sometimes as high as 30%.
Against that backdrop, online gaming is growing sporadically in Canada. But what do people bet on the most at leading gambling sites in Canada?
Slot Machines
Sixty five percent of gamblers in Canada spend their money playing slot machines. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Slots are the most popular casino games in most parts of the world.
In Las Vegas, slots generate up to 80% of casino revenues. On the Internet, these games have a similar market share. In other words, people love slots. But why is it?
For starters, slots are simple to play. You place a bet, hit play and wait to discover if you’ve won. What’s more, the games are colorful, featuring themes about sports, TV shows, celebrities, mythical gods and politics.
Everyone is bound to find a slot they will love, especially at online casinos. When it comes to betting, many of these games accept minimum bets of 10 cents. However, you can adjust your betting limits to a maximum of $100 per line.
The best part of slots, though, is that they don’t have a limit on the maximum you can win. This is one of their biggest appeals. You could risk $10 and win $10,000. If it’s your lucky day, you could turn a $1 bet into $10M.
A few Canadians have won over a million dollars playing slots in the past few years. But to be clear, they all won playing progressive jackpots like Mega Moolah.
Poker
Canada is home to one of the most successful poker players of all time: Daniel Negreanu. It’s also home thousands of poker-loving fans, some of whom who compete internationally at a professional level.
For the uninitiated, poker is a game of both skill and luck. It also features a variety of variants:
- Texas Hold’em
- Omaha
- Omaha Hi/Lo
- Three Card Poker
- 7-Card Stud
- 5-Card Poker
A majority of poker lovers choose Texas Hold’em as their favorite variant. This is true both in Canada and around the world. There’s a perfect explanation. Texas Hold’em provides players the freedom to make moves that maximize their chances of winning.
Texas Hold’em aside, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo and 5-Card Draw also boasts of large followings. In general, poker is popular with gamblers out to make consistent profits at casinos.
We know—winning casino games consistently is easier said than done. However, if you’re an experienced poker player, you can learn to win consistently. Slots players don’t have that privilege. Slots are based on pure luck.
Blackjack
Blackjack is yet another popular casino game available at nearly every online casino in Canada. Unlike poker, blackjack is a game of two players. You compete against the house dealer and not your fellow players.
The goal is to defeat the dealer in producing a hand close to or equal to 21. If you exceed 21, it’s called a push—a loss for you. Intriguingly, you can win a game of blackjack using the first two cards you’re dealt.
Let’s say you receive an ace and a 10-value card. The total number of points will add up to 21, a natural blackjack. If this doesn’t happen, you have the choice to hit for another card, split your cards or stand.
Let’s say you receive a nine and a queen card. The value adds up to 19. Here, your best bet is to stand. Otherwise, hitting for another card could risk a loss. By comparison, you can split two 5-value cards. You’ll get an extra card to fight for two hands.
That said, blackjack is strategy-based game. If you have a great strategy—like Don Johnson—who once won $15 million in one night playing blackjack, you could get rich off this game. Without proper strategies, however, you will struggle to win.
Sports Betting
Canada legalized single-event betting last year. Within a couple of months, nearly every province had commenced plans to legalize sports gambling. What’s more, sports betting related searches climbed tremendously.
In other words, Canada was yearning for the day single-event betting would become legal. To be clear, parlay betting was legal in the country for more than two decades.
Parlay betting involves combining multiple bets into one. It increases the maximum you can win. But make no mistake, parlay bets are pretty hard to win. Single-event betting levels the field, though.
You only need to predict one team to win money. In fact, you don’t have to pick the winner of a sports game. You could also bet on the total number of points in an NHL game, predict the correct score or points at half-time.
Roulette
Similar to slots, roulette is a game of luck. So, why isn’t it as popular as slot machines? For one, most roulette games payout a maximum of 35x your stake. But as we mentioned earlier, slots can pay up to $20 million.
That said, roulette is a fun game of chance. You place a bet amount, pick a prediction and hold tight for a couple of seconds. That’s right. Roulette is all about spinning a wheel.
The wheel is usually colored black and red and has numbers running from zero to 36. To be specific, there’s an American version with an extra number pocket—double zero. The amount of money you win depends on your bet and your stake size.
If you bet on black/red, you win at a 1 to 1 rate. If you predict a straight number, the payout is 35 to 1.
Conclusion
Gambling is legal at a provincial level in Canada. Since last year, every province has the power to regulate sports betting. This means gambling is only bound to grow further in the country. Meanwhile, most gamblers bet on slots or play casino games like slots, blackjack and poker.