As a proud Ontario native, I’m thrilled that poker’s two greatest brands have come together to launch GGPoker.ca and offer the Ontario poker community the perfect place to play online.
As you may already know, GGPoker’s parent company NSUS Labs has received a license for gaming and online poker in Ontario. Its flagship brand GGPoker will work with WSOP to bring its online gambling platform to players in Ontario this year.
Thanks to this license obtained by NSUS Labs, the partnership of the two brands — the WSOP and GGPoker — will allow for the launch of the GGPoker Ontario, which will be available to players in Ontario, Canada — but not the rest of the world.
Hopes had been high that GGPoker.ca would launch in early April, but the launch date is still a closely-guarded secret at the time of writing.
However, we do know that the cogs are turning, and work behind the scenes continues as the companies prepare for launch.
Part of what they will need to prepare for launch is the responsible gambling segment as regulators in the province stipulate the highest responsible gambling standards before an online gambling company goes live. This will include meeting criteria as laid out by the Responsible Gambling Council as part of its RG Check Accreditation program.
The Responsible Gambling Council told Casino Shield that: “the RGC is committed to bringing together all sides to ensure sustainable gambling spaces are in place and to help those at risk because we believe gambling should never come at a human cost.”
When asked who is in charge of the responsible gambling aspects of the site, GGPoker.ca confirmed that the site will launch under GG’s purview — with GG’s responsible gambling tools taking center stage, rather than the WSOP’s RG offering.
As confirmed to Canada Gaming Review by GGPoker, players can expect the following responsible gambling tools at launch.
- Deposit Limits: Limits the amount a player can deposit on the site in any given time period.
- Total Bet Amount Limits: Limits the amount of money that can be bet.
- Loss Limits: This allows a player to set a limit on how much they are prepared to lose. Once this threshold is reached, a player cannot gamble until the allotted time period has passed.
- Single Bet Amount Limits: This is a limit on what a player can bet.
- Balance Limits: Once a balance limit is hit, a player will need to sit out of any further action until the time period has passed.
- Play Time Limits: This limits the amount of time a player can spend playing games on the site.
- Re-Login Time Limits: This allows players time away from the table as part of time-outs and cooldowns.
- Monthly Login Frequency: This is a reminder of how many times they have logged into the site in a month and is a great reality check.
- Game Limit: This limits the number of games that can be played at any one time on the site.
- Self-Exclusion: This is a fail-safe used by a player who wants to fully ban themselves from being able to log onto the site.
However, GG did want to make it clear that this list may expand to include other tools before launch, and this is only what is expected.
All of these responsible gaming tools work to limit the amount of time and amount of money spent on the site and are often a combination of the two. For instance, a player can set a limit on how much they want to deposit on the site, but they have to determine a time period too. So, if a player wants to deposit $10 a week and they reach that limit, they then need to wait until the week has passed before they can deposit any more money.
Each one of these 10 tools can be used separately or as part of a holistic approach to managing time and money spent on the site.
For players fresh to the market, iGaming Ontario has put together a great primer for new players to get acquainted with what is on offer from online gambling companies in the province.
At A Glance: GGPOker Ontario; What We Know So Far
- Late Spring Launch: Ontario online gaming went live on April 4 but GGPoker.ca, in partnership with WSOP, is still yet to go live. It would be reasonable to assume the online poker room would want to launch before the summer and the start of the WSOP 2022 .
- Launch: Still contingent on an operating agreement with iGO.
- Tools: Comprehensive suite of RG tools will be available from launch.
- Big Splash: Big launch promotions and online satellites to the live WSOP 2022 festival in Las Vegas promised.
- Segregated Player Pool: GG confirmed to pokerfuse that the Ontario player pool will be segregated from the rest of the world.
- Automatic Transfer: Ontarians with existing GG accounts will migrate seamlessly over to the GGPoker Ontario app.
- Rewards: GGPoker Ontario will offer WSOP’s standard Caesars Rewards, though GG’s standard Fish Buffet could also be available.
GGPoker and the WSOP have been closely linked for three years now — with GG becoming the international online partner for the WSOP.
“As a proud Ontario native, I’m thrilled that poker’s two greatest brands have come together to launch GGPoker.ca and offer the Ontario poker community the perfect place to play online,” Daniel Negreanu, GGPoker Global Ambassador, was quoted as saying at the time the partnership was announced.
