The Canada Gaming Association (CGA) came to be in 2005. It was created to represent the gaming operators and suppliers in Canada, so if you’re one to place bets online or in person, you’ve likely heard or seen the name floating around.
The association works closely with provincial gaming operators, regulators, and federal-level officials. But trying to decipher what exactly it does isn’t easy. What’s more, its website is jargon-heavy, and the CGA often only appears in the news with, you guessed it, more jargon-laden stories.
Through this article, we’ll help translate the business and legal speak so you can better understand this influential organization in the gaming arena — and, more importantly, how it may or may not impact you as a player.
Let’s dive into the who, what, and how of this organization.
Who Is the CGA?
The CGA is made up of twenty board members who have a work history or current position with major gaming organizations. It offers paid membership services to gaming operators, gaming suppliers, and non-gaming suppliers.
When it comes to gaming suppliers, this refers to companies that support gaming businesses with things like digital platforms (including regular online casinos and crypto casinos) to host games, slot machines, and casino tables. A non-gaming supplier is an organization or company like financial institutions, tech providers, lawyers, and food providers serving the non-gaming aspects of a gaming business. And like with many things in life, there are many moving parts in keeping an operation running smoothly.
A few organizations that are part of the CGA membership that you might recognize (or even game with) include Draft Kings, Fallsview Casino Resort, Hardrock Hotel & Casino, BetMGM, and BetRivers.ca.
What Does the CGA Do?
The name may make you think that the CGA plays a role in letting consumers know of casinos and other gaming platforms that are licensed and regulated, accepting players from Canada, but that’s not what its work is all about.
The CGA has a few different things it’s striving for in its work, but it all boils down to influencing the government and public to support the gaming industry (encompassing gaming, sports betting, esports, and lottery businesses and operations). Its official mandate is “to advance the evolution of a regulated, responsible, and sustainable Canadian gaming industry through collaboration, education, and advocacy.”
You may be surprised to learn that gaming, betting, and lotteries in Canada are dealt with at the provincial level rather than at the federal level. This means there are variations in regulations and licensing across the country.
Since no federal-level gaming organization exists, the CGA helps bring a cohesive voice across Canada’s gaming industry. And, with the projected growth of this industry, particularly in the online gaming sphere, the CGA can potentially have a significant impact on your gameplay.
For the CGA to meet its mandate, it aims to help shape public policy, advocate for the industry, educate gaming organizations and their staff, and research gaming in the community.
This is what each of these activities looks like and how it approaches its mission as an organization:
Shaping Public Policy & Advocacy
When it comes to the CGA’s public policy work, it considers the opinions and desires expressed by its membership holders across the country to help address legislation and government support programs that impact the entire gaming industry. The CGA networks with business owners and government officials to help make changes.
As a part of its advocacy process, it also hosts symposiums, summits, and industry events to educate more people and organizations about hot topics like emerging trends in the industry and protecting player well-being. These events also invite discussion on the CGA’s policy advocacy.
This type of work has allowed the CGA to have a hand in bringing you single-event sports betting in 2021, developing regulation standards, and creating Ontario’s regulated gaming marketplace, iGaming Ontario.
Educating Gaming Organizations
Alongside its advocacy work for the gaming industry, the CGA has partnered with iGaming to create the CGA Academy to help deliver and educate on existing regulations and best practices.
Through the Academy, the CGA offers training to gaming organizations and their employees. The training includes tutorials on gaming compliance, anti-fraud practices, anti-money laundering training, spotting problem gambling, and more.
Researching Gaming in Communities
Part of the CGA’s process for influencing the government and the public to support the gaming industry has involved extensive research on how gaming has economically supported the Canadian community. As such, the CGA has explored figures and results like the revenue and employment numbers the industry has created.
The Bottomline: How the CGA Impacts Your Gameplay
The CGA impacts your game at a regulatory level, as it focuses on the industry as a whole by trying to change legislation so that more gaming businesses can thrive. This means you can think of the CGA as the crew behind the scenes of your gameplay working to help give you more playing options and to protect you with a carefully regulated industry.