Canada is not one of the countries that have a very clear gambling culture. As the poker craze lingered over the years, and as the government of different countries adopted less rigorous regulations as it concerned gambling, the country has gradually developed the culture. Fast forward a few years and Canada has massively outdone the US in terms of gambling legislation. Players who seek an online gambling experience can do so at traditional casinos online or at some of the sites you can find here, which offer players the chance to enjoy real money games like jackpot and more.
This is why we’ve put together a list of the top 5 online and offline gamblers that are based in Canada. This list comprises people that were born in the country and those that moved to the country, and their amazing gambling stories.
Guy Laliberté – Born in Quebec City in 1959
He was a professional poker player, and bloomed late in the world of professional poker because he was busy establishing the Cirque du Soleil in his prime. He later took home $696,220 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He had an iconic poker career because he donates most of his winnings to charity.
It was in 1984 that Guy and a few of his partners established the Cirque du Soleil, and this experienced so much success that the government of Canada was pushing for it to get to other provinces. Through this project, he made a huge amount of money, and that is also why many people may not understand easily why he surfaced in the poker world later. After winning huge money in 2007, many offers to play on the season 4 of the GSNs high stakes poker series started coming his way. He also took part in Poker after Dark Season 4.
It’s good to note that Laliberte later transformed into a huge philanthropist, establishing a charity outreach named Big One, through which he purchased up to $1 million dollars ticket for charity in the World Series of Poker of 2012. Some of the revenue from this went to the One Drop Foundation. The tournament saw up to 48 players compete, and a total of $5,333,328 donated to charity.
Evelyn NG – Born in Quebec City in 1959
She played professional poker live and online, and qualifies to be on this list for multiple reasons. A calculation of her total winnings in live poker reveals that it exceeds $375,000. She gained popularity in 2003 after defeating many poker players from America, including the popular Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Harman and Annie Duke. At some point, she was in a relationship with the famous poker player, Daniel Negreanu.
In Canada, she ranks among the top players of the game. She has an over aggressive playing style that made her famous. In principle, PokerStars sponsored her, but that stopped when she joined team Bodog. Her presence is felt both in the online and in person poker world. She had her best performance in the main event of the WSOP, where she took the 238th position out of the 6,844 people that took part.
Daniel Negreanu – Born In Toronto, Ontario In 1974
He is a professional player of the poker game, and does so both on and offline, in both cash games and tournaments.
Now, many people may ask why he deserves to be mentioned here, and the answer to that question is that no one deserves to be on this list more than him. Daniel is the most accomplished of all poker players in Canada, having won up to 6 WSOP bracelets. He also won the award of the player of the year for Card Player Magazine in 2004, and took home 2WPT titles too.
One thing Daniel is known for is his colorful way of playing. In fact, many people regard him as one of the most colorful players in the world of poker. When they are down to the big pots, he enjoys starring at and taking out his opponent. That is his strategy, and it has worked for him as he has earned a total of $32m from his poker career.
Apart from his exploits on the live casino games, he has also done great things on the online version of the game, and this has earned him a place that is well honored among the team poker stars representatives.
John Lefebvre – Born In Calgary In 1951
He focuses more on online gambling. He is another person that deserves a sort of administrative position on the list because he developed a presence in other businesses before delving into poker. It would also be noted that we are talking about the founder of Neteller – the premier web money transfer system for online gambling here. One more thing, he may be the only name on this list that has been nabbed by the police.
He was into many businesses before delving into poker, and his careers include e-wallet developer, retired lawyer, entrepreneur, composer, and singer, plus a convicted felon. Now, not minding his other ventures, he deserves to be here for co-founding Neteller in 2009. He was noticed by the federal authorities of the United States because of his online payment activities, and that saw him earn a jail term for illegal online gambling activities and money laundering. The case was later closed when he paid a settlement amount.
David Baazov – Born In Israel in 1980, and Raised In Montreal
David Baazov earns a mention here because he is the current CEO of Amaya Gaming Group. This stands as the largest online gambling firm in the entire world. He made Canada a center of gambling when he bought over the two biggest online poker rooms, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. An article about him was published by Forbes in 2014, where he was referred to as an online gambling’s young king.
He came from an orthodox Jewish home in Israel, but moved to Canada at the age of one. He was very good in mathematics while in school, lost interest in Judaism at 16, and was thrown out of the family house when he told his parents. He broke even when he was given a huge project to work on with computer sets in the public library of Montreal at the price of $20,000,000.
This made him decide to become a software developer, leading him to create the electronic poker table where he can play poker with no human dealer. This gave birth to Amaya, and the firm grew to become so profitable that he staked his claim in the online gambling business with the profits.