Privacy policy

Short version: this site is a blog. I don’t sell anything, I don’t want your personal details, and I collect as little as a website can get away with. The long version is below, because Québec law requires it and because you deserve specifics rather than reassurance.

1. Who is responsible for your information

Québec’s Law 25 requires every organisation to name a person responsible for the protection of personal information. For this site that person is Alex Bennett, and you can reach me at [email protected]. It is a small site, so that is genuinely me and not a department.

This policy covers this website. It does not cover the casino I write about. Once you click through to an operator you are on their site under their policy, and they collect a great deal more than I do.

2. What I collect

Three categories, and that is all.

Information you give me on purpose

Only when you choose to contact me directly.

Information collected automatically

Standard web server and analytics data: your approximate location from your IP address, the pages you looked at, how you arrived, your browser and device type, and roughly how long you stayed. I use GA4 for this, and only after you have agreed to analytics cookies.

Cookies and similar technologies

Explained in full in the cookie policy, which is a separate page because Law 25 wants consent requested for each purpose separately rather than buried in a wall of terms.

3. Why I collect it

4. Consent

Non-essential cookies stay off until you turn them on. You can change your mind at any time from the cookie policy page, and withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it, which is the law and also just decent behaviour.

If you would rather I deleted a direct email you already sent, ask and I will.

5. Who else sees your information

I do not sell personal information. I have never sold it and there is no version of this site where selling it makes sense.

These service providers process data on my behalf:

• Hosting: Cloudflare, which stores server logs
• Analytics: Google Analytics 4, which receives page views and approximate location
• Email: the email service used for [email protected], which receives and stores messages sent to this address
• Affiliate networks and casino operators: when you click a tracked link, the destination may set a cookie identifying which site sent you. They tell me how many people signed up, never who

I will also disclose information if a court, regulator or law requires it. If that ever happens and I am allowed to tell you, I will.

6. Data that leaves Québec

Some of the providers above store data outside Québec, and often outside Canada. Law 25 requires me to assess whether the destination gives your information adequate protection before sending it there, and to tell you plainly that it happens. So: it happens. The main destinations are Cloudflare and the analytics provider’s servers.

Privacy protection in those places may be weaker than Québec’s. That is one more reason this site collects so little in the first place.

7. How long I keep it

• Emails you send me directly: the same, deleted once we are done
• Your cookie choice: 180 days, then I ask again
• Analytics: at most 14 months, in aggregate form
• Server logs: a few weeks, for security

8. Your rights

Under Québec’s Law 25 and the federal PIPEDA, you can ask me to:

• Show you what personal information I hold about you, including any messages you have sent
• Correct anything inaccurate
• Delete it, where I have no legal reason to keep it
• Withdraw consent for anything you previously agreed to
• Send it to you in a portable format, a right that came into force in September 2024
• De-index information about you, where the law allows

Email [email protected] and I will answer within 30 days, which is the legal deadline. Privacy requests are the one category I always reply to. I may need to confirm who you are first, and I will ask for the minimum needed to do that.

9. Security and what happens if something goes wrong

The site runs over HTTPS, so your message is encrypted on its way to me. Accounts use strong authentication and access to the receiving mailbox is limited to me. I keep the amount of personal information small deliberately, because the safest data is the data you never collected.

If a confidentiality incident happens and it presents a risk of serious injury, I am required to notify the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec and the people affected, and to keep a register of incidents. I will do both.

10. People under 18

This is a site about gambling. It is not for minors, it is not aimed at them, and I do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has emailed me, contact me and I will delete the message.

11. If you are not happy with my answer

Come to me first, honestly. Most privacy problems are misunderstandings and I would rather fix mine than defend them.

If that does not resolve it, you can complain to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec at cai.gouv.qc.ca, or to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca. Both are free to use and neither needs a lawyer.

12. Changes to this policy

When I change something meaningful I will update the date at the top of this page and say what changed. I will not quietly rewrite it and hope nobody notices, because that is exactly the behaviour I criticise casinos for.