Vancouver gaming company Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. (LVFH) is peddling a product on Facebook that lawyers are saying could be illegal in this province.
The gaming company (TSX-V:LVH) has launched a free app called Real Vegas Casino, in which users then buy virtual money to play backgammon, poker and other casino games.
LVFH announced Tuesday that it has expanded its Real Vegas Casino brand on Facebook to include sports wagering.
“It’s probably not legal in B.C.,” Duhaime Law lawyer Christine Mingie Duhaime told Business in Vancouver April 3.
“The Criminal Code of Canada starts from the premise that all gambling is illegal unless there are certain areas that are carved out to legalize it,” said Duhaime, who specializes in gaming and money laundering law. “In B.C., only the province of B.C. is legally able to conduct any gambling whatsoever by use of a computer.”
One exemption to that law, she said, is that websites, such as HorsePlayerInteractive.com, can accept online bets for horse races at facilities such as Great Canadian Gaming’s Hastings Park.
“Horse racing is federal jurisdiction. The [federal] government wanted to preserve the agricultural industry going way back. They preserved horse racing and even dog racing, back then, and made it a special exemption,” Duhaime said.
LVFH president Jake Kalpakian was not available for comment.
His company stated in a release that “since all payouts are in virtual currency and cannot be redeemed for cash, this business model is legal in most countries, including the U.S.”
Duhaime, however, said that the Canadian Criminal Code also makes it an offence to accept bets even if they are never paid out in a negotiable currency.
LVFH has yet to file its full-year 2011 earnings, according to Sedar.
The company lost more than $1.8 million in the nine months that ended September 30. That was an improvement compared with 2010, when the company lost more than $2.1 million in the same nine-month period.
