Is online gambling legal in Canada?

Short version: online gambling in Canada is legal when a province runs it or licenses it. Everything else sits in a grey zone that the law aims at operators, not at the person on the couch with a phone. We are a comparison site, not a law firm. This page is our reading of public sources, which are listed at the bottom, and it is not legal advice. If a lot of money or a business is involved, pay a lawyer for an hour.

The federal rule: Criminal Code section 207

Gambling is a criminal law matter in Canada, so the starting point is the federal Criminal Code. Part VII makes most gaming and betting an offence, and section 207 then carves out the exceptions. The big one is paragraph 207(1)(a): the government of a province, alone or together with another province, may conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province under its own laws.

"Lottery scheme" is wider than it sounds. Paragraph 207(4)(c) says that games operated on or through a computer, video device or slot machine are kept away from charities, fairs and private licensees. Only the province can run those. An online slot is a game on a computer. So, read plainly, the only body allowed to run an online casino for people in a province is that province or someone acting on its behalf.

That is why every province that wanted online gambling built its own site through its lottery corporation: PlayNow in British Columbia, PlayAlberta, Loto-Québec's site in Quebec, OLG in Ontario. Our offshore vs provincial guide lists them in a table.

Ontario did it differently

On April 4, 2022, Ontario opened a regulated market for private operators. The model is still "conducted and managed" by the province, but private companies do the actual running. An operator has to be registered by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and sign an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario, which then offers the games on the province's behalf. Registered sites show the iGaming Ontario logo, and the AGCO tells players to look for it.

Only those registered sites may advertise to people in Ontario. In May 2025 the AGCO publicly asked media platforms to stop running ads for unregulated gambling sites aimed at Ontarians, and named one offshore brand as an example. A site that did not join the regulated market is, in the AGCO's word, unregulated. That is why our outbound links are switched off for Ontario visitors and why our Ontario page sends you to the iGaming Ontario list instead.

The other provinces and offshore sites

Outside Ontario, no province licenses private online casinos. The province runs its own site, and that is the only option it regulates. Offshore casinos still take Canadian players. They hold licences from Curacao, Anjouan (in the Comoros) or Kahnawake, and they accept Interac, cards and crypto from people in Alberta, BC, Quebec and the rest.

For you as a player, this is the grey market. Most of the Criminal Code offences in this area are aimed at people who keep, run or promote gambling. We are not aware of Canadian players being charged for playing at a site licensed abroad, and the provinces put their effort into operators and advertising. So playing is not treated as illegal for the player. It is also not licensed by your province, which matters more than it sounds: if an offshore casino refuses to pay, no Canadian regulator will step in for you.

The licences differ a lot. On our list, SpinMills and FairPari print Curacao GCB licence numbers with a company name (Fortuna Games N.V. and CENTRALD B.V.). Red Dog, Slots Empire, Spinlander and Whale.io print Anjouan, which is a light-touch licence: in a payment dispute you are close to on your own. Five sites we track printed no licence at all on the pages we could reach. Our rating method scores the licence for exactly this reason.

If you live in Ontario, none of these sites is licensed by iGaming Ontario, so they should not be advertising to you and we do not link them for Ontario players.

Kahnawake: licensed in Canada, but not by a province

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission sits in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, near Montreal. It enacted its Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming on July 8, 1999, and it has issued permits to online operators ever since, including Client Provider Authorizations. Operators it licenses have to be hosted at Mohawk Internet Technologies, a data centre in the territory.

A Kahnawake permit is a real licence from a regulator that says its main job is protecting the players of its permit holders. It is not a provincial licence. For a player in Saskatchewan or Nova Scotia, a Kahnawake site is in the same legal position as a Curacao one: you can play, your province does not regulate it.

Age limits by province

The legal age to gamble is set by each province, and it applies online too.

• 18: Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. AGLC states that PlayAlberta players must be over 18 and physically in Alberta.
• 19: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. OLG prints 19+ for its online casino and sports betting, and SaskGaming says PlayNow players in Saskatchewan must be 19 or older.

Offshore casinos usually ask for 18 at sign-up because they are built for many countries. That does not change your provincial age. If you are 18 in Halifax, the offshore form letting you through does not make it legal for you, and the site can void winnings at KYC anyway.

Tax on winnings

For a recreational player, gambling winnings are not taxed in Canada. The Canada Revenue Agency treats them as windfalls rather than income, which covers a small slot hit and a lottery jackpot alike. Interest or investment income you earn on the money afterwards is taxable in the normal way.

Professional gamblers are a different case. When gambling is carried on in a commercial, organised way, as a source of income with a realistic expectation of profit, the CRA can treat it as business income. Tax courts have looked at poker players on exactly this question, and the answer turned on the details of each case. If gambling pays your rent, talk to an accountant. Losses are not deductible for the rest of us.

Your bank may still ask where money came from. A large transfer from a payment processor you cannot name will get a question. Keep your casino withdrawal history and screenshots.

What "grey market" means in practice

• You can sign up and play at an offshore site from outside Ontario without breaking a law aimed at you.
• No Canadian regulator checks that site's games, holds its player funds or handles your complaint.
• Your bank may decline the deposit. Many Canadian credit cards block gambling merchants, which is a bank decision, not a legal one.
• The site can close an account, change terms or leave the Canadian market, and your recourse is the licensing body named in its footer.

If gambling has stopped being fun, the helplines on our responsible gambling page are free and confidential in every province. The rest of our guides cover the practical side: deposits, KYC and withdrawals.

Sources

Checked in October 2026: Criminal Code s.207, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-207; AGCO internet gaming FAQ, agco.ca/en/lottery-and-gaming/frequently-asked-questions-internet-gaming; AGCO news release of May 14, 2025, agco.ca/en/news/agco-calls-media-platforms-step-fight-against-unregulated-online-gambling-sites; Kahnawake Gaming Commission, gamingcommission.ca/interactive-gaming/about; CRA Income Tax Folio S3-F9-C1, canada.ca, Folio 9 Miscellaneous Payments/Receipts; AGLC PlayAlberta launch, aglc.ca/news; SaskGaming PlayNow launch, saskatchewan.ca; OLG, olg.ca; age by province, legalline.ca.