How does Ontario's approach to online gambling regulation differ from other Canadian provinces?

The Core Difference: An Open Market, Not a Monopoly

Every Canadian province derives its authority to offer legal online gambling from the same federal source. The Criminal Code of Canada defines what gaming activities are illegal in Canada, and the provinces are assigned responsibility to operate, license, and regulate legal forms of gaming. For decades, every province that offered online gambling did so through a single government-run platform — British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces all took this monopoly approach, each running their own provincial lottery site as the only legal option for residents.

Ontario broke from that model entirely. The first of its kind in Canada, Ontario's internet gaming market allows people in Ontario to play on world-class gambling sites, with the assurance that those sites are closely monitored for game integrity, player protections, and responsible operations. Rather than funnelling all play through a single government portal, in 2022, the Government of Ontario worked with the AGCO and iGaming Ontario to launch an open iGaming market that allows eligible private gaming operators, registered with the AGCO and under contract with iGO, to participate in Ontario's legal gaming market. The result is a competitive landscape where dozens of privately operated brands — household names from the global online casino industry — can legally serve Ontario players, provided they clear a rigorous gatekeeping process.

How the Two-Body Structure Actually Works

Ontario's regulatory architecture involves two distinct bodies working in tandem, which is itself unique in Canada. The AGCO registers and regulates online gambling sites and sets standards to protect players while working to ensure game integrity for people across Ontario. Alongside the AGCO sits iGaming Ontario (iGO), which handles the commercial side. iGO conducts and manages internet gaming offerings through private gaming operators in Ontario, and develops, executes, and oversees operating agreements with private iGaming operators, as well as the required policies and programs that balance consumer protection, reduction of red tape, and revenue generation.

In practice, a private operator must satisfy both bodies before going live: being a fully registered and authorized operator in the iGaming market means the organization has successfully received a registration by the AGCO and, with the exception of OLG.ca, has executed an operating agreement with iGO. To complete these steps, organizations will have met rigorous standards of game integrity, fairness, player protections, and social responsibility. Their sites will have controls preventing underage access and measures to enable more responsible gambling. They have entered legal agreements ensuring compliance with applicable laws, including anti-money laundering. OLG.ca continues to operate separately as the province's own government-run platform alongside the private market.

Worth noting: iGaming Ontario was originally established as a lottery subsidiary corporation of the AGCO, but iGO became an independent agency as of May 2025. The governance continues to evolve.

What This Means for Players in Practice

The practical upshot for an Ontario resident is genuine choice. Where a player in Quebec or Manitoba is limited to their province's single government site, an Ontario player can legally access a wide range of AGCO-registered operators — each contractually bound to the same player-protection standards, but competing on game selection, user experience, and features. Prior to the launch of Ontario's competitive iGaming market in April 2022, the Government of Ontario had estimated that 70 per cent of online gambling was taking place on unregulated sites. The open-market model was explicitly designed to pull players away from those offshore sites and into a regulated environment — and a new Ipsos channelization study found that when Ontarians choose to gamble online, more than 9 out of 10 are choosing to do so on legal sites within Ontario's regulated iGaming market.

Alberta has been watching Ontario's model closely — iGaming Ontario continued to build its relationship with the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction as Alberta moves toward developing a safe and regulated iGaming market — which suggests Ontario's open-market approach may eventually spread. For now, though, it remains the only framework of its kind in Canada.

If you ever have concerns about your play, ConnexOntario is available 24/7 at 1-866-531-2600. You must be 19+ to gamble legally in Ontario.