Ontario (Canada)

Ontario launched its regulated online gambling market on 4 April 2022. Because Canadian criminal law requires provinces to 'conduct and manage' gambling, the province created iGaming Ontario (iGO) so private operators can offer real-money igaming as iGO's agents under operating agreements, while the AGCO acts as the independent regulator (registration, standards, enforcement). Operators must register with the AGCO and sign an operating agreement with iGO. Rather than a conventional gaming tax, operators pay iGO a contractual revenue share of roughly 20% of gaming revenue. On 12 May 2025 iGO was continued as an independent agency under the iGaming Ontario Act, 2024, ending its subsidiary relationship with the AGCO.

Why conduct and manage

Section 207 of Canada's Criminal Code exempts lottery schemes only where they are conducted and managed by a provincial government. Ontario cannot simply license private firms to run online gambling on their own account; the province must remain the legal principal. iGaming Ontario satisfies this by conducting and managing the internet-gaming scheme itself, while private operators supply the platforms, games and marketing as its agents under operating agreements. The structure lets a competitive commercial market coexist with the constitutional requirement that the state, not the operator, ultimately conducts the gambling.

Two bodies, split roles

Ontario separates regulation from commercial operation. The AGCO, an independent regulator, sets the Registrar's Standards, registers operators, suppliers and gaming employees, and handles compliance and enforcement. iGO holds the operating agreements through which the market is conducted and managed, and receives the revenue share. The two functions were once linked: iGO began in 2022 as a subsidiary of the AGCO. On 12 May 2025 the iGaming Ontario Act, 2024 came into force, continuing iGO as an independent agency reporting to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, formalising the divide between regulator and operator.

Revenue share, not tax

Ontario levies no conventional gaming tax on the regulated market. Because operators act as iGO's agents, their compensation is contractual: operators retain roughly 80 per cent of gaming revenue and remit about 20 per cent to iGO under the operating agreement. Economically the effect can resemble a turnover-linked levy, but legally it is agent compensation flowing from a commercial arrangement, not a statutory tax rate. The distinction matters for how the market is characterised, how obligations are enforced (through contract as well as regulation) and how the share can be adjusted over time.

Scale and channelisation

The market launched on 4 April 2022 as Canada's first open, competitive regulated internet-gaming market. In FY2024-25 it recorded total wagers of CA$82.7 billion, up 32 per cent year on year, and gaming revenue of CA$2.9 billion, up 31 per cent, across roughly 50 operators and about 2.6 million active player accounts. Rapid growth off an existing base of unregulated play is often read as evidence of channelisation, players moving from grey-market sites into the regulated system, though published totals do not by themselves measure how much of prior activity has been captured.

Registration and standards

Participation is gated by two requirements. Operators register with the AGCO, holding an Internet Gaming Operator registration on a two-year term, and must also sign an ongoing operating agreement with iGO before offering real-money play. Registration extends to gaming-related suppliers and manufacturers. Registered operators are bound by the AGCO's Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming, which set requirements across game integrity, anti-money-laundering controls, advertising and responsible-gambling measures such as self-exclusion and player limits. Compliance is monitored and enforced by the AGCO, separately from iGO's commercial relationship with each operator.

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