With more sources of open, global and free media now permeating Canadian society, this question takes on an entirely different dynamic than it would have done 20 years ago. Let’s throw in the additional factor that several provinces have started warming to the idea of casino gaming, whereas two decades ago, the environment was much frostier. You’ll find that the media representation of casinos in the media then was far more negative than it is in the modern market.
Casino gaming is an interesting topic from a Canadian media perspective. To the south of the border, we have the US, which has started to repeal a whole range of online casino gaming regulations, and honestly, we’re not too far behind them in that respect.
Lobbyists spend millions of dollars trying to get influential figures and legislators to change their minds and regulate and tax online casinos accordingly. Once we mix all of these factors to explore how casinos are represented in Canadian media, it becomes a pretty complex and varied subject.
How casinos leverage the convenience of online media
There has been a shift in the number of Canadians seeking out gambling platforms in the digital age. Accessing these platforms from home has become far easier and much more convenient. We can scroll through a world of casino gaming opportunities without getting up from our couch.
Marketing strategies have adapted to this, with a whole ecosystem of Canadian casinos using their unique selling points to try and get their brands off the ground and successfully expand into the Canadian market. Many of these strategies focus on lower deposits, with the best $10 minimum deposit casinos able to find an audience within the burgeoning Canadian market.
Let’s face it: those brands that can market themselves as the top providers in their field and fuse it with low minimum deposits will cause a stir. There are other factors to consider, but in a market where shopping around is actively encouraged, casino gamers are more than happy to discuss bonuses and platforms in detail.
Those casinos that know how to utilize and leverage the media properly and get their brand beamed into the palms of prospective customers are expanding their reach quickly.
Representation in social media
Social media has become a free source of news and marketing ideas, and while this has proved to be fertile ground for go-getters who are determined to get their name and brand out there, it has wreaked havoc on the old way of doing news. In the days of traditional media, newspapers and radios had hours, sometimes all night, to write a story, verify facts and put together their story and opinion.
Thanks to the internet, stories break almost instantly in the modern market. They can travel around the world before they are verified, and once the genie is out of the bottle and people are scrambling to confirm or deny it, publishers have already moved on to the next news item.
However, casinos, especially those in Canada that have to compete with a much larger market, can rely on some of the biggest affiliate marketers and corporate social media accounts to help push positive imagery about their brand.
Likewise, social media’s instant nature is also a hive of discussion for those who do not support casinos having carte blanche to operate in Canada. With such an enormous range of opinion across social media, it’s hard to state whether casinos are represented fairly. Still, there are definitely vocal elements on either side of the debate. It mirrors a lot of the polarizing discourse that we have seen in other areas, as well as other sectors that tie into film and TV, such as cryptocurrency.
Casinos in traditional Canadian media
Plenty of Canadian casino-themed movies have been released over the years; I vividly remember the hits from the early 2000s, including Owning Mahowny, The Last Casino and Going for Broke.
Owning Mahowny is one of the highest-rated casino films. It depicts a Toronto-based casino boss who embezzled over $10 million and was subsequently imprisoned. Originally released as a book, it was picked up and turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.
The Last Casino focuses on blackjack card counting, a hot topic in the casino gaming world. This topic was influenced heavily by the MIT blackjack team, which operated successfully for over 20 years in the latter stages of the 20th century.
Casinos that catch people in the act enact harsh penalties. However, card counting has been eradicated in digital casino gaming due to advances in algorithmic technology and multiple live dealers rotating between tables.
Conclusion
Are casinos represented accurately in Canadian media? Overall, it’s probably fair to agree that they are. Many of the top films about gambling have depicted the perils that can arise from problem gambling, which is a prevalent force and rightly remains the main discussion point for casinos looking to legalize and build their brand in Canada.
However, especially in TV reports and social media, there is a clear direction and benefit from how legalizing and regulating casinos properly helps the state to cycle this money back into society, even funding addiction services and helping those who may experience a problem.
We should never lose sight of this, but outright bans of products like gambling and alcohol have proved to be ineffective in the past. Canadian media, fortunately, does not shy away from this fact or provide only one side of the argument.