Online Blackjack Canada

Blackjack has a long and rich history, with its roots going all the way back to the 18^th century.  For most of this time it had been known as twenty-one.  Once the game hit the newly legalized Nevada casinos in the 1930’s, it was common for them to offer promotions for hitting 21 with a black ace and a black jack which paid out as much as 10 to 1.

The game itself soon took on this name and blackjack has been one of the most popular table games at casinos ever since.  Canadians are particularly fond of the game and it can be found at both Canadian land based casinos as well as online blackjack sites that cater to Canadians, and many of them do.

Best Canadian Casinos 2024

Blackjack may be the most famous of casino games in fact, and many people who have never even played the game for money may still have a good idea of at least the basics of the game, beating the dealer without going over 21 for instance, and hitting or standing to achieve that.

One of the things that blackjack players find particularly appealing is the fact that, unlike most casino games, such as roulette, craps, baccarat and slots, blackjack isn’t just a matter of pure luck. With blackjack, there is a huge element of skill involved.

Blackjack, when played well, also has the lowest house edge of all casino games, and considerably smaller than other casino games.  In fact, it’s so slight that sharp players who count cards can actually get an advantage over the house. Of course counting cards is frowned upon in any land based casino and completely not possible while playing online, since the deck is shuffled after each hand. On Live dealer tables the cards are usually shuffled at 50% penetration,  meaning after 3 decks on a 6 deck game, which makes card counting from impossible to highly risky.

Blackjack is not a game that is typically played without money on the line, although one can play blackjack in free mode, but this only serves to help become familiar with how the game works.  The fun of blackjack derives primarily from the excitement of staking real bets and winning real money of course.

Canada Online Gambling Laws

Historically, Canadians have been able to choose to play blackjack at just about every online casino, with the exception of Bodog.  Bodog was run out of Canada and the site just wanted to make sure they stayed out of any potential trouble.

Nowadays, they have servers in Europe which Canadians can play on, and the servers in Quebec just serve the American market now, so there’s no issue for us with this site anymore.  However, recently a few online casinos have begun to restrict Canadians, presumably to satisfy the new requirements of the U.K. Gambling Commission to limit access to players in so called grey markets.

Canada is not a grey market at all though, and this belief has arose out of a misunderstanding of what a grey market actually is.  We could say that a market is grey if there is a significant amount of uncertainty whether online gambling is legal or not in the jurisdiction, but this is not the case at all in Canada.

Rather, there are no laws whatsoever that restrict online gambling, or not even any that could be interpreted to do so.  Canada’s gambling laws address running gambling establishments in Canada, you aren’t allowed to operate them here without government approval, and you aren’t allowed to gamble at these illegal establishments either, but none of this doesn’t have anything to do with online gambling.

For a crime to be committed, the establishment in question first has to be located in Canada, and then fall under the definition of either a common gaming or betting house.  Online sites fail the first test since they aren’t located in Canada, so Canadian law does not apply to them.  Since the only restrictions on gambling by Canadians is their not being allowed to play at common gaming or betting houses in Canada, no laws are being broken here by anyone by their playing all they want at offshore gambling sites.

Several other sites which continued to offer blackjack and other casino games to Canadians received their U.K. license, including Amaya Gaming which is even based in Canada, and among other things runs Poker Stars, the world’s largest online poker site.  The servers aren’t located here though and that’s the important thing.  Some were worried that Poker Stars would pull out of the Canadian market when they were taken over by a Canadian company, but Amaya understands the laws here, even though some companies in other countries may not.

When the dust settled though, the effect has been a minor one, and Canadians still enjoy the ability to play at the majority of online casinos and other gambling sites, including poker and sports betting ones, with no restrictions.  This includes most of the very best places to play blackjack online and no one really cares about whether or not certain sites don’t want our business anymore, there are lots that do and it’s their loss really.

The average Canadian may not be as familiar with gambling laws here and some Canadians are even unsure of whether it is completely legal to gamble online, but this is indeed the case, and there’s no reason whatsoever to expect that this will change anytime soon.  So we’re free to continue to enjoy the best blackjack and other gambling games the world has to offer.

How to Find Best Real Money Blackjack Site?

With all that said, we do not mean that all online blackjack Canada sites are actually worth your time. Similar to any other industry, some are great, while the others are simply mediocre.  That’s why it’s important to check things out before you make a deposit. Obviously, the Canadian casinos listed here are tested by us on a regular basis and that’s the best we could find on the net. However, we would like to give you some tips in case you wish to check things out yourselves.

• Make sure the casino has a valid license.
• That is accepts players from Canada.
• Make sure that it offers deposits and withdrawals in Canadian Dollars, otherwise you will loose money on exchange fees.
• Variety of games and their winning odds: make sure that you have enough blackjack games to choose from and their winning odds. In online casinos you can get much better odds than in any land based casino with house edge of 0.5% and higher.
• Reputability and trust: google the “casino name + review” or other relevant words (fraud, complaints) and see that the site has clean history in terms of payouts and support.

Live Blackjack Canada

One of the best ways to play online is at Live dealer tables, making the whole experience much more real and appealing. You can see the cards dealt, chat with the dealer and other players, and have fun. Not all casinos offer them, but there are plenty that do. Usually the casino will state on its home page if they offer live games – you just need to make sure that the table limits suit your budget.