Ontario’s regulated gaming market is becoming a model for other provinces
Ontario’s regulated gaming market provides a market precedent for other provinces to follow
ALBERTA OPENED ITS regulated iGaming market on 13 July 2026 with 22 approved sites and a new division of responsibilities between its regulator and commercial market manager. For the first time, Canada had two provinces running competitive online gaming markets built around private operators.
Ontario supplied the precedent. Its market had already been operating for more than four years by the time Alberta went live, giving policymakers a working example of what happens when private operators are brought inside a provincial framework.
Four Years Ago, Ontario Was the Outlier
When Ontario launched its market in April 2022, allowing private companies to offer online casino games and sports betting under provincial oversight marked a departure from the traditional provincially operated model.
As of 6 August 2026, iGaming Ontario listed 48 operators running 83 gaming websites. That is slightly below the 50 active operators reported at the end of 2024–25, even though the number of gaming websites remains high. A more revealing measure is where players are choosing to gamble. A May 2026 Ipsos study commissioned by iGaming Ontario and the AGCO found that 91.1 per cent of respondents who gambled online reported using regulated sites, compared with 83.7 per cent a year earlier.
That 91.1 per cent figure says more about how the system is working than the number of brands in the market. Ontario now has several years of evidence showing whether existing online activity can be brought into a system where operators are registered, identifiable and subject to provincial rules.
Alberta Copied the Framework, Then Changed the Terms
The most obvious similarity is administrative. Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission registers and regulates operators, while iGaming Ontario conducts and manages the private-operator market. Alberta has adopted a comparable separation: the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission regulates the sector, while the Alberta iGaming Corporation conducts and manages its commercial side.
The provinces did not begin from identical positions. Before its new market opened, the Alberta iGaming Corporation estimated that roughly 70 per cent of online gambling activity in the province took place through unregulated offshore platforms. Its first 22 registered sites therefore entered a market where much of the activity already existed. Regulation was partly about where that activity would take place, not creating it from scratch.
Alberta has also written its own financial terms. The province says 20 per cent of net revenue from approved operators will flow to its General Revenue Fund, alongside allocations connected with First Nations and social-responsibility programmes. Ontario operates under different commercial arrangements. There are practical differences for operators too. Alberta’s framework requires tools such as age verification, deposit and time limits and province-wide self-exclusion, which means the comparison with Ontario is not only about who is allowed into the market. It is also about how each province turns broad regulatory principles into everyday operating rules.
For players, the distinction is simpler: a platform is either operating inside the provincial framework or it is not. Casino.org is an independent gambling information site that tracks licensing, operators and market rules, with its overview of Ontario online casinos showing the regulated options available within the province. Ontario has also had four years to build a commercial record. During 2025–26, regulated operators recorded more than C$103 billion in wagers and more than C$4.2 billion in gaming revenue. Alberta could design its own system with evidence already available on operator participation, channelization and the practical separation of regulation from market management.
A Smaller Operator Count Can Still Signal Maturity
Ontario now has fewer active operators than it did at the end of 2024–25, yet its official directory still contains 83 gaming websites. One company can operate several consumer-facing brands, so the number of registered businesses and the amount of choice visible to users do not necessarily move together. A regulated market does not need an endless stream of new entrants to show that it is functioning. Consolidation can sit alongside substantial consumer choice and high participation in the regulated system.
There is also a wider commercial layer around the operators themselves. Digital businesses working under formal rules require payment processing, identity checks, legal advice, cybersecurity and compliance expertise. London already has a technology sector shaped by companies working across finance, software and regulated industries, making the business effects of Ontario’s model broader than the operators taking wagers.
Ontario therefore offers something broader than a gambling-market example: a working model for regulating private digital businesses without the province operating the products itself. That is harder to capture in a single revenue figure, but it is the part another government can actually examine when designing its own market. Alberta has now put a second version of the model into operation. For the first time, Ontario’s approach can be judged against another Canadian market rather than only against its own four-year record.