Changes Ahead for Ontario in the iGaming Domain

As you may already know, countries all across the globe have taken their own stance when it comes to gambling rules and regulations, each one having its own views on what should be permitted and what should be denied. These start out from a general structure but end up needing to be adjusted in order to accommodate ever-changing demands and socio-political circumstances.

What Do We Know About Canada’s Gambling Laws?

Canada is no exception to this rule and, in fact, it’s quite famous for having prohibited all kinds of gaming on its territory via the federal Criminal Code.

There is a section in the code, though, section 207 that enables provincial governments to conduct and manage gaming as they see fit for their province. Horse racing and betting on horse races are the only gambling activities the provinces can’t meddle with. 

Provincial Gambling Laws

This is how provinces ultimately established their own government entities meant to conduct and manage the game in that province. For instance, Ontario has the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OGL), while in Quebec, gaming is provided by Loto-Quebec. It’s only natural then that the OGL is responsible for managing and conducting both online casinos for players in Ontario as well as casinos that are physically located in the province.

Although it’s great that the government did provide provinces with the option to establish their own entities that can manage gaming, legal gaming is unfortunately now provided by monopolies under the shape of provincial government bodies. 

Controversies

However, when everything moved online, the Canadian gambling laws suddenly had to face plenty of grey areas that no one knew how to deal with. 

For instance, take a company that provided online gaming options to people based in Canada, but that had no physical or administrative connection with the country. Should these offshore providers fall under the incidence of the law? It all became very tricky and, in fact, none of them ever got charged with any offence in Canada.

Over the years, there came to be a considerable gap between what local providers offered in terms of online gaming options and what the offshore ones could. In other words, Lottery Corporations ended up feeling threatened by the riches offered by offshore providers, pleading with their respective governments to do something about these ‘illegal’ activities. 

What Does the Ontario iGaming Landscape Look Like?

Since the companies that provided the gaming options needed regulation themselves, regulating bodies also needed to come into existence. In Ontario, for example, the gaming regulator is called the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The regulator  ensures that every game service provider to the OLG will be ‘registered’ and regulated, regardless if they’re croupiers or operators.

What Changes Are In Store for Ontario in the iGaming Domain?

Over the years, a certain goal started to define itself more and more for the AGCO - to provide iGaming in Ontario with a structure that enables it to operate as an open market. Over the years, several steps have been taken in this direction, with the most recent one taken in March 2021. 

The AGCO began to include offshore operators in their consultations as well, so as to increase their chances to incorporate them in the structure as well. With this goal in mind, a dedicated subsidiary, iGaming Ontario (IGO) also came to be.

Having said this, it’s possible that the gaming landscape in Ontario will suffer interesting changes over the course of the next few years. This will naturally affect both brick-and-mortar casinos and online casinos - in both cases, by the way, players are required to be at least 19 years of age. 

For example, operators wanting to legally provide services in this province will now need to secure registration with the AGCO and get an operating agreement with the subsidiary we mentioned above, IGO or iGaming Ontario.

What we can expect to see is a shift from the current state of affairs of a government monopoly to one that allows a more open and equal footing. In the end, it’s all for the best and the changes are coming to accommodate both operators, whether local or offshore, while also protecting the customers’ needs. These two bodies, the AGCO and IGO have already worked tremendously on sketching out this future general structure, admitting that enough legwork has been made in order to start accepting registration applications.