How does Ontario's approach to regulating online casinos compare to the federal government's role?

Canada's gambling law is genuinely unusual, and understanding the split between Ottawa's role and Queen's Park's role helps explain why Ontario's online casino market works the way it does.

The federal floor: what the Criminal Code does (and doesn't do)

The Criminal Code defines what gaming activities are illegal in Canada, assigns provinces the responsibility to operate, license, and regulate legal forms of gaming, and generally prohibits gaming — while section 207 carves out a set of exceptions to that prohibition. The key exception relevant to online casinos is that the Code expressly prohibits gambling in Canada, but exempts lottery schemes that are "conducted and managed" by provincial governments. "Lottery schemes" in Criminal Code language covers far more than scratch tickets — it's the terminology covering all gaming products, including lotteries and iGaming, with a mandate that spans land-based gaming, lottery, iGaming, and components of charitable gaming.

So the federal government's role is essentially constitutional and structural: it sets the outer boundary of what's legal, and then steps back. The Criminal Code defines what types of gaming activities are legal in Canada, and the provinces are assigned responsibility to operate, license, and regulate legal forms of gaming. Ottawa doesn't run, license, or supervise individual online casinos — that authority flows entirely to the provinces once the Criminal Code's conditions are met.

Ontario's three-layer structure

Within that federal permission, Ontario built its own architecture — and it's a three-layer system worth understanding clearly.

At the top is the AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario), the provincial regulator. The AGCO registers and regulates online gambling sites and sets standards to protect players while working to ensure game integrity for people across Ontario. It establishes and upholds the Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming, which apply to OLG's internet gaming site, to iGaming Ontario's activities, and to all registered igaming operators and suppliers. The AGCO also handles complaints — it addresses regulatory complaints and inquiries, including those related to game integrity and fairness, misuse of private information, responsible gambling violations, and money laundering.

Below the AGCO sits iGaming Ontario (iGO), the province's commercial conduct-and-manage entity. iGO became an independent agency as of May 2025 and is responsible for conducting and managing igaming when provided through private operators. This distinction matters: private gaming operators must successfully register with the AGCO and execute an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario before they may begin offering their games to players in Ontario — the AGCO is the regulator, while iGaming Ontario is the commercial conduct-and-manage entity.

Then come the private operators themselves — the actual casino sites players in Ottawa use. They sit at the bottom of the chain, bound by both AGCO standards and their operating agreements with iGO.

Why the "conduct and manage" requirement shapes everything

Historically, the "conduct and manage" role has been interpreted as being the "operating mind" of the lottery scheme — having the capacity to control it. This requires a more rigorous and complex framework for gambling in Canada than what operators may be used to in some other jurisdictions. That's why Ontario couldn't simply issue licences the way, say, Malta or Gibraltar do. iGaming Ontario had to be created as the entity that legally "conducts and manages" the market on behalf of the province, with private operators running day-to-day operations under its umbrella.

For players in Ottawa, the practical upshot is straightforward: if a site isn't registered with the AGCO and operating under an iGO agreement, it isn't part of Ontario's regulated market, regardless of what licences it holds elsewhere. Regulated sites display both the iGaming Ontario and BetGuard logos — those are your quick visual confirmation. BetGuard is also Ontario's centralized self-exclusion service, letting anyone 19+ opt out of all licensed Ontario platforms in a single step; if you ever need it, it's at betguard.ca. The full list of registered operators is maintained at the official iGaming Ontario registry, which is the live source of truth for what's currently approved. For support with gambling concerns, ConnexOntario is available at 1-866-531-2600.

The AGCO's Registrar's Standards require operators to meet outcomes across key areas of regulatory risk: prevention of underage access, game integrity, privacy and information security, anti-money laundering, and responsible gambling. None of that comes from Ottawa — it's entirely a provincial framework, built on top of the Criminal Code's permission structure.