Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 10090
well i am not too sure about this, but if i remember it right you could do it pokerstars, you just have to enable this currency in the cashier, and then if you want you can also make it a primary currency. it's been quite a while since i played @stars, so things might have changed.
Joined: May '08
Location: Canada
Age: 48 (M)
Posts: 1017
what province are you from? I don't know if you can play on playnow.com as far as I know people from ontario still can't play there,but that may have changed.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14191
Never heard of one so far. Mots of the sites, if not all are based either in USA or Europe, so their choice of currency is US$ and euro. Currency fx can be a pain sometimes but it is not noticeable if you dont gamble big time. Also the site must be keeping the charges low
Joined: Dec '16
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 128
I've looked at this myself. Other than provincial lottery corporations, there don't seem to be any commercial poker sites that originate in Canada. Pokerstars allows you to deposit in $CAN and keep money in your account in $CAN. When you play a table, your stake is converted into $USD. This isn't the worst thing; PokerStars' currency exchange rates are excellent.
Posted by pacificrim: No i can not play on Play Now this site is only for BC and MC, i am not in these 2 province of the Canada unfortunately. Every site use USD or Euro for now so you need to pay conversion rate + fees. I dont play on Poker Stars now.
Even if you find a site which let you play in CAD you still going to pay the fee for the conversion because all of these places are mainly using usd or euro to operate. Their own bank accounts are in usd or euro.
Joined: Nov '14
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 56
Posted by bowie1984:
Posted by pacificrim: No i can not play on Play Now this site is only for BC and MC, i am not in these 2 province of the Canada unfortunately. Every site use USD or Euro for now so you need to pay conversion rate + fees. I dont play on Poker Stars now.
Even if you find a site which let you play in CAD you still going to pay the fee for the conversion because all of these places are mainly using usd or euro to operate. Their own bank accounts are in usd or euro.
Joined: May '09
Location: Croatia
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 22424
I dont understand why you have this rates+fees to deposit money in currency that isnt yours!my currency is croatian kuna,I make deposits on some casino in euro!my bank take from visa my currency for rate that is on date and it almost same,maybe somethih highe rate,but this is bank!
Posted by pacificrim: No i can not play on Play Now this site is only for BC and MC, i am not in these 2 province of the Canada unfortunately. Every site use USD or Euro for now so you need to pay conversion rate + fees. I dont play on Poker Stars now.
Even if you find a site which let you play in CAD you still going to pay the fee for the conversion because all of these places are mainly using usd or euro to operate. Their own bank accounts are in usd or euro.
Well, yeah. I am registered in some places which letting me use my country's own currency as an option, but none of these are strictly pokersites and many of them pretty much making bank on me by setting their exchange fees high.
I don't understand you want to be playing with the strong U.S. dollar and Euro currency. I finished 2nd place Iron Poker's weekly Canadian freeroll a couple weeks back and won $40 Euro which got automatically converted to $60 Canadian and don't notice any fees when cashing out.
Joined: Nov '14
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 56
Posted by vic75: I don't understand you want to be playing with the strong U.S. dollar and Euro currency. I finished 2nd place Iron Poker's weekly Canadian freeroll a couple weeks back and won $40 Euro which got automatically converted to $60 Canadian and don't notice any fees when cashing out.
Lol the strong US. Yeah i will try to check into Iron sound good thanks.
Joined: Jan '12
Location: Portugal
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 114
Hi dude... I'm pretty sure I've seen an advertise for a Canadian Poker Room in a site. After reading your post I've been trying to track it back but I really can't find it again. Anyway it could be my mistake since there's a Canadian Enterprise which is the major developer of p0ker software's such as P0KERSTARS, and it could have been my misunderstanding. Anyway, if I find it back I'll definitely let you know.
Joined: May '09
Location: Croatia
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 22424
well we cant expect that for every country on world they give currency to play on account,but for poker its best euro and usd!on unibet my main account is in croatian kuna and thats from my registration and this cant be changed!when I play casino or betting,its in kuna,but when is poker then its in euro!
Well, Partypoker and Pokerstars can be in Canadian Dollars. But there's really no point to it because the buy-ins are in US dollars anyways. But it's always better to have your cashier set in the currency of your country if you can because most rooms will charge a fee to convert your money into USD and that fee is added to the exchange rate ratio.
My partypoker account is in CAD and when I cashout or deposit I always get the exact full amount.
Joined: Jun '13
Location: Canada
Age: 80 (M)
Posts: 3700
If you want to play on Poker Stars used instant echeck for deposit and cash out with no fees.
You can deposit in Canadian dollars and their exchange rate is the lowest in the market.
Also sometime they have promo if you make a deposit then you do it in CD and if you win something you are paid in U.S. and when the promo is over then you just cash out your CD account and again no fees.
Party Poker you use electronic transfer again with no fees and their exchange rate is also good.
Joined: Dec '16
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 128
Dude, I hear you. I've been investigating this issue myself casually for a while now. I have some small income in $US sitting in my paypal account, and I've been trying to years to find a way to bring it into Canada and onto a poker site without having to convert or pay fees. It's a labyrinth.
Start at the beginning. If there are any sites in which you can actually play in $CAN that's great, but again apart from provincial lottery corporations' sites I don't know of any. If you find out any let me know.
So let's start with the assumption that you have to play in either Euros or $US. Now you have to find out the best conversion rates and where. As I wrote earlier, pokerstars offers conversion rates way better than paypal, banks, or credit cards. So set a pokerstars account with $CAN as your primary currency, then when you get your money to pokerstars you can convert it as needed to play. And if you do well, you won't have to convert often. You'll play and win in $US, convert your bankroll back to $CAN on the site, and move it back to a bank account.
Yes, fees suck balls. If you use a credit card to deposit to pokerstars in $CAN, you'll get a service charge from the credit card for a "cash advance" (usually $5 flat) and you'll pay interest to the credit card from day one because it's a cash advance and not a purchase. Pokerstars allows for echeques though, which is a transfer directly from your bank account to pokerstars, and from what I see there are no fees on either side for that.
My only beef with pokerstars is that if I have a $US bank account with money in it, I can't transfer $US from it to my pokerstars account. I think that pokerstars' policy is that money going into your account has to be in the currency of the country where you're from. And since paypal and US bank accounts are blocked from transferring to pokerstars, I can't transfer $US from those sources, and being in Canada I can't transfer $US from my USD account in Canada. That kinda blows, but again pokerstars' conversion rates are very very good.
I think that 888poker will take $US from a USD account in Canada, which means no conversion fees at all. And if you have a USD account in Canada, and 888 will take echeques to and from that account, and your bank has no fees for echeques/transfers back and forth to 888, that's literally your most "free" option.
I've posted similar threads and had lots of people tell me to use net-teller or skrill or whatever kind of ewallet. Ewallets are great ways to keep your personal and banking information private by being a buffer between your bank and the destination of your money, but there are always service fees of course; the ewallet provider has to earn money for themselves, right?
So if you're going to use free echeques, I recommend that you do so only with large and reputable sites. Maybe PokerStars and 888 are your best options.
Joined: Jun '13
Location: Canada
Age: 80 (M)
Posts: 3700
Posted by pacificrim: Thanks for you help yes thats help me.
You very well informed...
Thank you.
I will make a little correction to the above post. 888 do not accept echeck and there exchange rate is way over the market. So you can't deposit there without fees. And cash out for Canadian is by cheque and takes a lot of time.
And i am saying that by experience because i once deposit and cash out there once.
Joined: Jan '17
Location: Lithuania
Age: 66 (M)
Posts: 1756
Ok I am maybe not best informed guy and talk nonsense here but I do not understand why you need to play in you currency only? I had used our currency when euro was not our currency, just convert it in bank or skrill, neteller or in poker dite itself.
