GME3: The (Not-So) Terrible Twos, Private Party(s), & Taking Social Media to School

This week’s GME3 features some updated statistics from the AGCO and iGO to mark the second anniversary of Ontario’s registered iGaming market, some new bipartisan privacy legislation on the horizon in the US, and a surprising legal challenge coming from four Ontario school boards. Read the full stories below!

Gambling

The (Not-So) Terrible Twos

Ontario’s regulated iGaming regime has officially turned 2! This past Thursday marked the two-year anniversary of the founding of iGaming Ontario (iGO) and the Ontario-regulated online gaming and sports betting market. As part of the celebration, iGO released a new IPSOS report highlighting some of the changes that the Ontario market has gone through over the past year.

One key metric to observe is the percentage of players using regulated vs. unregulated, grey market platforms. Ontario continues to see progress in this category, with 86.4% of respondents in Ontario reporting that they participating in online gaming on regulated sites. This is a minor improvement over last year, where 85.3% reported playing on regulated sites. 

While progress has slowed on this front, it shows that iGO is continually making progress in its mission to push grey market operators out of Ontario. Still, around 20.1% of Ontario gamblers use a combination of regulated and unregulated sites, while 13.6% of the userbase uses unregulated sites exclusively. iGO will continue to push for a greater share of users to access regulated gambling platforms so they can provide a safer and more competitive online gaming environment in Ontario.

In terms of growth, Ontario is also doing exceptionally well. Vixio, a global regulatory intelligence company, reports that the Ontario market is currently the sixth largest in the world by gross revenue. Furthermore, Ontario’s sports betting market is the fifth-largest in the world by total wagers. Our most popular sport is basketball (at 24% of total wagers) followed by football at 15%.  Hockey and baseball take up 11% each, with soccer behind at 10%.

However, the largest segment in the Ontario gaming market remains casino games, like slot machines and card games. Blackjack was by far the most popular of the table games, at over a quarter of the total table-game wagers. Poker is also hugely popular, and with over $1.5 billion in total wagering this year, Ontario has officially become North America’s largest online poker market.

Ontario’s gaming market is continuing to grow rapidly. If you’re looking for advice on how to enter the market, or you have any questions about gaming in Ontario and Canada, reach out to Jack here at GME Law!

Media

Private Party(s)

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell and Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both of Washington state, surprised both parties this weekend when they announced their proposal to introduce legislation that would enshrine privacy as a consumer right and create new rules for companies that collect and use personal information. While the bill has yet to be formally introduced, bipartisan support makes it more likely that the bill could get serious consideration.

From what we know so far, the bill would strengthen rules requiring consumer consent before a company can collect or transfer certain kinds of information. Additionally, Companies would have to notify consumers about the details of data collection and retention policies and seek consumer permission for significant changes. For example, the bill would give Americans the right to opt out of targeted advertising.

Companies will also have to ensure that algorithms used to analyze personal data aren’t biased, and businesses that buy and sell personal data will have to register with the Federal Trade Commission. Finally, the bill would also establish a new bureau focused on data privacy within the FTC. Their job would be to enforce existing laws and enact new rules as technology changes. 

This legislation has the potential to radically change the legal landscape around privacy in the US. We at GME Law will be following this bill closely once it is formally introduced. 

Entertainment

Taking Social Media to School

Four Ontario district school boards have decided to add to the social media legal dogpile. The Toronto, Peel, Ottawa-Carleton, and Toronto-Catholic school boards have launched a joint lawsuit against several large social media companies, alleging that their apps have “negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn and disrupted the way schools operate.”

In the filed statement of claim, the school boards argue that these platforms “…were reckless and malicious, manipulating the brain neurochemistry of young students, getting them hooked on social media platforms, and, in doing so, causing widespread damage and disruption to the education system.”

The school boards seek a combined $4.5 billion in damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., and ByteDance Ltd., who operate Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok respectively. This case is the first of its kind in Canada, but hundreds of school boards in the United States, along with some states, have launched similar lawsuits against social media companies.

However, it is likely that the school boards will face several legal challenges in the course of the suit, including:

• proving that these companies owe a duty of care to the school boards, not just the students who specifically used their products and may have suffered harm;

• defining damages in a quantifiable manner; and

• the burden of proving that social media companies intentionally get adolescents hooked on social media.

With these challenges, as well as the sheer scope of the case, the suit will likely take years to resolve in court. Regardless, make sure you follow GME Law on LinkedIn to get future updates as the case progresses!