What records should I keep of my Ontario online casino activity in case a tax question comes up later?

Good record-keeping around online casino activity is mostly about being able to explain money flows to the CRA clearly — not because your winnings are automatically taxable, but because unexplained deposits can trigger questions you'd rather answer with documents than guesswork.

The tax baseline: why most Ottawa players don't owe anything, but still need records

Lottery winnings of any amount are generally not taxable in Canada, unless the prize can be considered income from employment, a business, or property, or a prize for achievement. Gambling winnings fall under the same broad principle. The traditional tests for taxable business income include a profit-making purpose and commerciality — but gambling is always undertaken in pursuit of profit, and even regular, frequent, and systematic gambling is something that by its nature is not generally regarded as a commercial activity except under very exceptional circumstances. So for the vast majority of recreational players in Ottawa, casino winnings simply aren't reportable income.

The catch is that "I'm a casual player" is a position you may need to support. The CRA's most common method of indirect income verification — the net worth method — involves considering changes in assets and liabilities, personal spending, and non-taxable sources of income, including gambling winnings. In plain terms: if large sums move through your bank account and you can't explain where they came from, the CRA can ask. Good records let you answer that question in five minutes instead of five months.

What to keep, and where to get it

Playing on a regulated Ontario site actually makes this easier than it used to be. The AGCO's standards require that all player account transactions be recorded and logged accurately, that player account information be made readily available to the player, and that all transactions be made readily available and clear. Specifically, operators must give players access to deposit and withdrawal history and current balance, login times, gaming event and transaction history, the method and source of funds used for transactions, total amounts wagered for a session or period, total amounts won or lost for a session or period, and account balance at the start and end of each session.

That's a solid foundation — but don't rely solely on the operator to hold it forever. Pull and save the following periodically, at minimum annually:

• Account transaction history — every deposit and withdrawal, dated, with the payment method shown. Download this as a PDF or CSV from your account dashboard.
• Session win/loss summaries — most Ontario operators let you generate a summary by date range. A year-end net figure is the single most useful document if a question ever arises.
• Bank and e-transfer statements — your own bank records showing transfers to and from the casino account. These independently corroborate the operator's records and are essential if you ever need to show the CRA that a deposit into your chequing account came from a gambling withdrawal rather than unreported income.
• Withdrawal confirmations — any email confirmations of withdrawals, particularly larger ones. These are easy to overlook but useful as a cross-reference.

If you play across multiple licensed Ontario operators, keep a simple spreadsheet that rolls up the net result across all accounts for each calendar year. You're not filing it anywhere — you don't send records with your income tax return, but you keep them in case the CRA asks to see them at a later date.

The "professional gambler" exception — and why it changes everything

There are exceptional cases where gambling activities have been held to be taxable — but these relate to taxpayers who applied inside information, knowledge, and skill to their activities. Lottery and certain other winnings are generally non-taxable in Canada; however, if a taxpayer is in the business of gambling, the proceeds and losses are considered for income tax purposes. If you're an unusually systematic, high-volume player — think: treating it as a primary income source with disciplined bankroll management and detailed tracking — you may want a tax professional's view on your specific situation. At that point, the record-keeping requirements become much more formal, closer to those of a self-employed person.

How long to keep everything

For personal records, the CRA's general guidance is to keep documents that support your tax return for at least six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. Treat your casino records the same way — a folder per calendar year, held for six years, is a sensible and low-effort approach. Store digital copies in at least two places (cloud plus local, for example).

One practical note: you're playing in Ontario's regulated market, where seeing the iGaming Ontario logo on a site tells you the website is managed by iGaming Ontario and regulated by the AGCO — meaning the operator's transaction records are held to a regulatory standard. That's reassurance that the underlying data exists, but it's still worth keeping your own copies. Operators can leave the market, accounts can be closed, and data-access policies can change. Your own archive is the only one you fully control.

If you want authoritative guidance specific to your circumstances, the CRA's Income Tax Folio S3-F9-C1 covers gambling winnings in detail, and a Canadian tax professional familiar with gaming income can give you a precise answer for your situation. And if gambling ever stops feeling like a leisure activity, ConnexOntario (1-866-531-2600) is there — you have to be 19+ to play in Ontario in the first place.