Ontario enforcement in October 2026: a two-day PointsBet suspension and a C$200,000 fine for theScore Bet

Ontario’s gambling regulator took action against two online operators in October 2026. On 6 October the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) issued a C$200,000 monetary penalty to Score Media and Gaming Inc., the operator of theScore Bet, over two cash-out offers that were not honoured. On 20 October the AGCO announced a settlement with PointsBet Canada under which PointsBet’s Ontario gaming site will be suspended for two days.

PointsBet Canada: a two-day suspension and an independent audit

The settlement ends a proceeding that began on 12 February 2026, when the AGCO issued a Notice of Proposed Order to suspend PointsBet Canada’s iGaming registration for five days. The AGCO alleged a systemic failure to detect and report suspicious betting linked to the 2024 bet-rigging scheme involving Jontay Porter, then a Toronto Raptors player. According to the AGCO, when it asked Ontario sportsbooks in early 2024 whether they had offered bets on Porter, PointsBet replied, after significant delay, that it had not. Eighteen months after that response, PointsBet acknowledged that it had.

Under the settlement, PointsBet agreed to a two-day suspension of its Ontario gaming site. It also agreed to an independent audit, using an auditor and an audit methodology approved by the AGCO, to address any findings, and to have that work independently validated. The AGCO says the settlement concludes the regulatory proceeding. PointsBet had contested the proposed order: on 26 February 2026 it announced that it would request a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal, an adjudicative body independent of the AGCO.

The AGCO described its February notice as “a first for Ontario’s regulated igaming industry”. The AGCO had fined PointsBet twice before, in May 2022 over advertising and inducement rules and in November 2023 over responsible gambling standards.

What a suspension means for an account

The AGCO’s settlement announcement does not give dates for the suspension. It also does not say whether players will be able to log in, withdraw money or settle open bets during the two days. The Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming require that players can withdraw their funds “as soon as is practicable”, subject to verification, and that iGaming Ontario takes steps to keep player funds under its oversight and “available to players”. If you hold an account, watch for the operator’s notice once the dates are set.

theScore Bet: C$200,000 over two cash-out offers

The AGCO’s 6 October penalty concerns a C$1,000 parlay placed on 14 March 2025 on NHL, NBA and NCAA basketball games played that day. If every leg had won, the potential payout was more than C$1 million. With one leg left, theScore offered the player a cash-out of about C$380,000. The player accepted at once, but the transaction was rejected during automated verification after the odds changed. Four minutes later the player accepted a second offer of almost C$100,000, which was also not honoured. The bet then lost and the player received no payout.

The Registrar found that neither offer was achievable as presented to the player. The AGCO says C$200,000 is the maximum monetary penalty available. An operator served with such an order can ask the Licence Appeal Tribunal for a hearing within 15 days. When we checked on 27 October, we had found no public report of a hearing request.

What Standard 4.07 says

Standard 4.07 of the Registrar’s Standards states that “information provided to players prior to and during game play shall not mislead players or misrepresent games”. At a minimum, it must not describe outcomes, prizes or features that are not achievable, or present winning as the probable outcome. Standard 4.06 separately requires operators to explain cash-out options before a bet is placed. The finding against theScore was that the offers on screen could not be delivered as shown. The AGCO did not say the player was owed either amount, and it states that its enforcement is separate from any route a player has to resolve an individual dispute.

What it means for players

If an offer shown on screen is not honoured, the AGCO’s guidance is to start with the operator:

• Check the terms and conditions linked to your account or to the bet.
• Follow the site’s formal complaints process and keep the complaint number it gives you.
• Wait for the site’s decision, which can take up to 90 days.

If the dispute is still unresolved after that, or you think a regulated site broke the rules, you can complain to the AGCO with the site’s name, your player ID and the complaint number. Complaints about responsible gambling, possible illegal activity or advertising can go to the AGCO first. The AGCO is clear about its limits: it cannot get your money back or make a site pay you. It can review compliance, which can take three to six months or more in complex cases, and issue warnings, suspensions or monetary penalties. Our licensing and regulation guide explains how the AGCO and iGaming Ontario divide the work.

Before opening an account, check that the site is listed by iGaming Ontario. ConnexOntario offers free, confidential help 24/7 at 1-866-531-2600, and our responsible gambling guide lists help in every province.

Players in Ontario must be 19 or older. Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

New Brunswick says it is exploring regulated private online gambling

New Brunswick’s government says it is looking at whether to license private online gambling operators. “Government is exploring options around regulating private online operators,” Finance Minister René Legacy said in a statement to Brunswick News, published by the Telegraph-Journal on 19 October 2026. No timeline for the review was given. If the province went ahead, it would be the third in Canada, after Ontario and Alberta, to open its online market to licensed private companies. For now, Atlantic Lottery remains the only legal online gambling operator in New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada.

What the government said

Legacy’s statement added that “online gaming is continuously evolving”. Asked to elaborate, government spokesperson David Kelly said that “approaches in other provinces and jurisdictions are being monitored as government considers how best to maintain a safe, responsible, and appropriately regulated gaming environment for New Brunswickers.”

The Telegraph-Journal also reported that New Brunswick’s budget documents show government lottery revenue down C$8 million from two years earlier.

Why the question has come up

Atlantic Lottery is publicly owned and returns its profits to the four Atlantic provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. New Brunswick’s stake is held by the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation, a Crown corporation, and Atlantic Lottery runs the province’s ticket lottery, video lottery and online games on its behalf.

Atlantic Lottery’s 2025-26 annual report puts the pressure in numbers. It says approximately C$250 million leaves Atlantic Canada each year through illegal operators, and that its own share of total online betting and gaming activity in the region rose to 35%, from 34% in 2024-25. New Brunswick received C$148.9 million of the corporation’s profit in 2025-26, down from C$154.6 million the year before.

Atlantic Lottery spokesperson Greg Weston told the Telegraph-Journal that any decision to change the online gaming landscape would be for its provincial shareholders. “We want our players to choose to play with the local and government-regulated option, but we know our products have to stack up against the illegal offerings,” he said.

What New Brunswick would have to decide

Ontario and Alberta had to settle at least three questions before their markets opened. New Brunswick has not said how it would answer any of them.

• Who regulates. In Ontario the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is the regulator, while iGaming Ontario conducts and manages online gambling offered through private operators. Alberta uses a similar split: AGLC handles regulatory oversight and the Alberta iGaming Corporation signs the commercial agreements. New Brunswick would need to decide which bodies take on those roles.
• How much the province keeps. Michael Naraine, an associate professor of sport management at Brock University, told the Telegraph-Journal that Ontario takes a 20 per cent cut of gross revenue, that Alberta takes “a few extra percentage points” for research, education and addiction services, and that New York State taxes gross gaming revenue at 51 per cent.
• What happens to Atlantic Lottery. The corporation serves four provinces under one model. A New Brunswick market would have to settle Atlantic Lottery’s place in it, a question its spokesperson says belongs to the shareholder governments. Naraine also suggested the Atlantic provinces could partner with Quebec to build a larger market.

The wider debate

The provincial lottery corporations have recently reorganised their national voice. On 5 October 2026 the Canadian Lottery Coalition relaunched as the Canadian Alliance for Regulated Gaming, a not-for-profit association founded by publicly owned lottery and gaming organizations. Its launch release names illegal online operators, increased advertising and prediction markets among the challenges facing policymakers. Executive director Molly Cormier told the Telegraph-Journal the group does not take a position on which market model each province should adopt, and argues instead for safeguards, oversight and enforcement under whatever system is in place. “There’s advertising that takes place and targets players in provinces where that site is not licensed, and that creates an incredible amount of confusion,” she said.

Separately, FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence unit, announced on 3 September 2026 that it had imposed a C$399,712.50 penalty on the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation on 24 July for failing to submit suspicious transaction reports, and a C$231,826 penalty on the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation on 23 July. On 9 July it had announced a C$212,025 penalty against Atlantic Lottery itself. All three paid in full and the cases are closed. None of the statements reported on the New Brunswick review mention the penalties.

What it means for players

Nothing changes today. The minister’s word was “exploring”, and the government has given no timeline. Until a law passes and a licensing system is built, alc.ca remains the only provincially authorised online gambling site in New Brunswick, and its age, account and self-exclusion rules stay as they are. Sites licensed in Ontario or Alberta are not licensed for players in New Brunswick, and the Telegraph-Journal reported that residents who search for them are redirected to the same companies’ international sites, which no Atlantic province regulates. Our guide to whether online gambling is legal in Canada explains how the provincial rules work, and the Atlantic Canada page lists New Brunswick’s free gambling helpline. We will record any bill or formal consultation in our Canada iGaming tracker.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Canada’s investment regulator bars dealers from sports and entertainment prediction contracts

Sports and entertainment prediction contracts have no place in Canada’s securities system. A joint notice of 27 August 2026 from the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), the pan-Canadian self-regulatory body that oversees investment dealers, says such contracts should not be regulated under securities law, and CIRO staff do not consider it appropriate to approve applications from its dealers to trade them. Betting on sport stays where it has always been: with the provinces.

The August guidance

An event contract pays out according to whether a stated event happens. The joint CSA and CIRO notice, Staff Notice 91-307, said that, in the CSA’s view, event contracts based on sports and entertainment events or outcomes should not be regulated within securities and derivatives legislation, and that CIRO does not consider it appropriate to approve applications by its dealer members to trade them. “It is important for investors and market participants to understand that event contracts based on sports- or entertainment-related activities or outcomes should not be regulated within securities and derivatives legislation,” said Stan Magidson, CSA Chair and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission, in the joint release. The regulators added that the status of other types of event contracts was still being assessed.

What dealers may still offer

According to the joint release, two CIRO dealer members have been authorized to facilitate trading in a limited set of event contracts. The Globe and Mail names them as Wealthsimple and Interactive Brokers. BNN Bloomberg reported that Wealthsimple started offering prediction markets through its Predict app in July 2026.

CIRO set the terms for those dealers in a bulletin of 26 March 2026. They may offer contracts on economic forecasts, such as inflation, central bank rates, jobs and housing; on environmental forecasts, such as average global temperature; and on financial indicators, such as contracts that settle on the price of S&P 500 futures. Contracts on elections or other political events are excluded, every contract must run for at least 30 days, and clients may not use leverage or margin. The contracts trade and clear on US exchanges regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and a dealer that wants to go beyond the permitted list must first notify CIRO. A contract listed in the United States is not automatically available here.

Why sports bets stay with the provinces

Saying that sports contracts are not securities does not make them unregulated. Betting on sport is gambling, and gambling in Canada is governed by the Criminal Code. Section 207 makes it lawful for “the government of a province” to “conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province” in accordance with provincial law. Since a 2021 amendment, the only betting that paragraph 207(4)(b) leaves out of the definition of a lottery scheme is betting on horse races, so betting on a sports event falls under the provincial system.

In practice that means one of two models. Ontario and Alberta license private operators under provincial oversight, and the other provinces offer online gambling through a government-run platform. Our guide to whether online gambling is legal in Canada sets out the rules province by province, and our licensing and regulation guide explains who licenses what.

The Canadian Gaming Association welcomed the August guidance. “Sports wagering is sports betting, whatever the platform, and it belongs within the framework that provinces have built specifically to regulate it,” said its president and CEO, Paul Burns, in a statement.

What about the US prediction-market headlines?

Headlines about US prediction markets do not change the position in Canada. A product described as a “prediction” or a “contract” is treated according to what it does: a sports contract is outside securities law, and sports betting is a provincial matter under the Criminal Code.

Polymarket, an offshore prediction market, shows how this works in practice. In April 2025, Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal approved a settlement between the Ontario Securities Commission and the companies behind Polymarket. They paid a $200,000 administrative penalty and gave an undertaking to the commission to prevent Ontario residents from using Polymarket.

What it means for players

Canadian law provides one route for sports betting: the system your province has set up, either a site licensed in Ontario or Alberta or your province’s own platform elsewhere. A product that calls itself a prediction market, an exchange or a contract does not sit outside those rules. The minimum age is 19 in Ontario and 18 in Alberta. Our responsible gambling guide lists the tools and support available in each province.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Alberta’s first iGaming market report: C$2.89 billion wagered by 30 September 2026

Alberta has published its first official figures for the regulated online gambling market. The Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) released its first Market Performance Report on 23 October 2026, covering 13 July to 30 September 2026. In that time players wagered C$2.89 billion with the province’s regulated operators, and the operators kept C$122.1 million after paying out winnings. In September, 388,585 player accounts were active across 24 operators.

The figures, month by month

The report’s spreadsheet gives three months of data. July covers only 19 days, because the market opened on 13 July.

Source: AiGC Market Performance Report for the period ending 30 September 2026. The totals row is our sum of the monthly figures. AiGC says the data is unaudited and may be revised.

NAGGR (non-adjusted gross gaming revenue) is the amount wagered minus the winnings paid back to players. “Active operators” counts companies, not sites. One operator can run several brands, which is why AiGC’s directory listed 34 approved sites on 30 September while the report counts 24 operators. AiGC’s press release says the market opened with 15 operators on 13 July. The spreadsheet’s figure of 16 counts every operator active at any point in July.

Casino games bring in most of the revenue

In September, casino games made up 75.6% of revenue, sports and event betting 19.5% and live dealer games 4.9%. Casino games were also the largest category by amount wagered, at C$1,003.2 million of the C$1,277.4 million total. Sports betting’s share of revenue rose from 12.1% in August to 19.5% in September. AiGC’s casino category covers random number generator games such as slots, table games, poker and keno.

AiGC only reports products that had activity in a given month. The report has no rows for peer-to-peer games, such as poker played against other Albertans, or for fantasy sports, so it shows no activity in either through September.

How Alberta compares with Ontario

Ontario’s latest published month is August 2026. Ontario operators took C$396.3 million in revenue from 1.208 million active accounts that month, according to iGaming Ontario. Alberta’s September revenue of C$56.6 million is about one seventh of that. By our calculation, revenue per active account was about C$328 in Ontario in August, against C$146 in Alberta in September. The two markets differ in age and size: Ontario opened in April 2022, while Alberta’s operators were still joining during the period covered.

The press release describes the results as showing “steady channelization”, meaning players moving from unregulated sites to regulated ones. The report itself gives no estimate of how much of Albertans’ online gambling now goes through regulated sites, so that share is still unknown.

What the report does not say

• It does not count individual players. AiGC says active accounts are not unique players, because one person can hold accounts with several operators.
• It does not cover the whole market. AiGC says the figures reflect operators joining gradually through the period and are not a full picture of iGaming in Alberta.
• It does not show how much the province receives. The press release says 2% of gross gaming revenue goes to First Nations and 1% to social responsibility programmes, including mental health, addiction services and research.

AiGC says it will now publish figures every month. We will add each release to our Canada iGaming tracker, next to Ontario’s monthly data.

What it means for players

A revenue figure of C$146 per active account means the average active account lost C$146 to operators in September, after winnings. It is an average: some accounts finished ahead and others lost more. Set a budget before you play and treat the money as the cost of entertainment. Every regulated Alberta site must connect to AGLC’s centralised self-exclusion programme and offer deposit and loss limits and time limits. The minimum age in Alberta is 18. Before opening an account, check that the site appears in AiGC’s directory of approved iGaming sites. Our report on the end of the transition period explains what changed for unregistered sites on 13 October 2026.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Betway goes live in Alberta’s regulated iGaming market

Betway, the brand owned by Super Group, is now live in Alberta’s regulated online gambling market and appears in the directory of approved iGaming sites kept by the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC). When we checked that directory on 30 September 2026, it listed 34 approved sites.

Betway in Canada

The brand is also part of Ontario’s regulated market, so Alberta becomes its second regulated Canadian province.

A place in Ontario does not carry over automatically. An operator needs its own registration with AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis), the regulator, and a signed operating agreement with AiGC, the Crown corporation that runs the commercial side of the market, before it can accept a single Alberta wager. That two-step process is why Alberta’s list of registered operators has always been longer than its list of live sites.

Where the Alberta count stands

The market opened on 13 July 2026 with 22 sites live. AiGC’s directory listed 34 approved sites on 30 September and 51 on 28 October 2026. Nearly 50 companies had paid registration and permit fees before launch, so more additions are likely as commercial agreements are signed. Our report on Alberta’s first two months covers that gap, and the Canada iGaming tracker keeps the running count for every province.

What it means for players

Every regulated Alberta site has to connect to AGLC’s centralised self-exclusion programme and offer deposit and loss limits and time limits. The minimum age in Alberta is 18. Before opening an account anywhere, check that the site appears in AiGC’s directory of approved iGaming sites, which is the only reliable way to tell a regulated Alberta site from an offshore one that happens to accept Albertans. Our responsible gambling guide lists the free help lines in every province.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Ontario’s regulated market: 49 operators and 84 sites as of September 2026

Ontario’s regulated online gambling market counted 49 operators running 84 gaming sites as of 1 September 2026, according to the iGaming Ontario operator directory, and the latest iGaming Ontario monthly report shows the market handled C$9.74 billion in cash wagers in August 2026 across 1.208 million active player accounts.

The directory: 49 operators, 84 sites

iGaming Ontario, the provincial agency that contracts with private operators, publishes a directory of every site it has approved. The listing dated 1 September 2026 shows 49 operators and 84 gaming websites across casino, sports betting, poker, bingo and betting exchange. The site count runs higher than the operator count because many operators run several brands, and a few run separate casino and sportsbook domains under the same name.

For comparison, iGaming Ontario’s first quarterly report, released 30 August 2022, counted 18 operators and 31 gaming websites at the end of the launch quarter (4 April to 30 June 2022). Operators have risen by 31 and sites by 53 in a little over four years.

The latest figures: July and August 2026

iGaming Ontario published quarterly market performance reports from April 2022 to December 2024 and then switched to a monthly format, so the most recent official figures are monthly.

• July 2026 (report released 27 August 2026): C$9.88 billion in cash wagers, a record for a single month, C$413.6 million in gaming revenue and 1.365 million active player accounts. Casino play accounted for C$8.78 billion of the wagers, about 89 per cent, with sports betting at C$992 million and peer-to-peer poker at C$116 million.
• August 2026 (report released 23 September 2026): C$9.74 billion in cash wagers, C$396.3 million in gaming revenue and 1.208 million active player accounts. Casino wagers held steady at C$8.78 billion while sports betting fell to C$843 million, down 15 per cent on July.

iGaming Ontario counts accounts, not people, so one person with three accounts shows up three times. The figures cover the private regulated market only and exclude OLG’s own online offering and pari-mutuel horse racing.

The fiscal-year picture confirms the trend. iGaming Ontario’s own summary of fiscal 2024–25 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025) reported C$82.7 billion in wagers and C$3.2 billion in gaming revenue, up 31 per cent and 32 per cent on the previous year. For the calendar year 2025 the market took almost C$100 billion in wagers and produced just over C$4 billion in gaming revenue, according to iGaming Ontario’s monthly data.

What has changed since April 2022

The launch quarter in 2022 produced C$4.08 billion in wagers and C$162 million in gaming revenue across 492,000 active accounts. August 2026 alone produced more than twice that revenue in a single month. Three structural changes drove the growth. The operator count rose as offshore brands that had served Ontarians without a licence converted to the regulated model. The product mix shifted towards casino play, which now delivers about 75 to 85 per cent of revenue in a typical month. Active accounts, 492,000 in the launch quarter, passed 1.2 million in every month from April to August 2026.

Regulation tightened in the same period. The AGCO’s ban on athletes in gambling advertising, with restrictions on celebrities likely to appeal to minors, has been in force since 28 February 2024, and every regulated site must participate in the province-wide self-exclusion programme. The model itself survived a court test in May 2024, when the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke’s challenge to the iGaming Ontario framework.

What it means for players

A larger directory means more choice, but the check is the same: a site is only regulated in Ontario if it appears in the iGaming Ontario directory. The minimum age is 19. Regulated sites must offer deposit limits, time limits and self-exclusion, and unresolved complaints about a regulated site can be raised with the AGCO. Sites that serve Ontarians without an iGaming Ontario agreement offer none of that recourse. Province-by-province counts are kept on our Canada iGaming tracker.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Alberta’s regulated iGaming market: the first two months in numbers

Alberta’s regulated online gambling market opened on 13 July 2026 with 22 operator sites approved on day one, while more operators were still working through registration with the regulator, AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis). Nearly 50 companies had paid registration and permit fees before launch, so the gap between “registered” and “live” is the number to watch as the market settles.

Launch day: 22 sites, nearly 50 companies

On 13 July 2026 Alberta became the second province after Ontario to let private operators take bets under provincial oversight. The Alberta iGaming Corporation’s launch release said: “As of launch, 22 registered iGaming sites were approved to offer regulated iGaming services in Alberta.”

The Globe and Mail (13 July 2026) put the number of companies that had paid registration and permit fees before launch at nearly 50. Registration with AGLC only clears the regulatory hurdle. An operator also needs a signed commercial agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC), the Crown corporation that runs the business side of the market, before it can accept a single Alberta wager. That two-step model explains the gap: nearly 50 companies had paid registration fees, and 22 sites went live on day one.

After launch: steady additions

GeoComply, which runs location checks for operators, said on 21 July 2026 that more than 100,000 Albertans had signed up through platforms using its technology in the first week, and that its partners had run more than 3.2 million geolocation checks in that period.

AiGC’s own directory of approved iGaming sites keeps growing as operating agreements are signed: it listed 34 approved sites when we checked it on 30 September 2026 and 51 on 28 October 2026. Several listed sites share a parent company, so the number of separate operators behind them is lower than the site count. Our Canada iGaming tracker holds the current count.

Suppliers keep arriving

Game studios need AGLC registration too. Games Global is among the critical gaming systems providers registered with AGLC. When we checked AGLC’s list of registrants on 28 October 2026, it named 66 iGaming critical gaming systems providers and 17 iGaming platform providers. Alberta’s framework was built to mirror Ontario’s, so suppliers already approved in Ontario have a shorter compliance path in Alberta.

Play Alberta stays

The provincially run site, Play Alberta, did not close when the private operators arrived. It continues to operate under AGLC’s direction and management, and existing accounts and balances carry on as before. Play Alberta now sits alongside the private sites as one option among many.

What it means for players

Every regulated Alberta site must connect to AGLC’s centralised self-exclusion programme and offer deposit and loss limits and time limits. The minimum age in Alberta is 18, lower than the 19 required in Ontario and British Columbia. Before opening an account, confirm the brand appears in AiGC’s directory of approved iGaming sites, which is the only reliable way to tell a regulated Alberta site from an offshore one that happens to accept Albertans. We update operator counts for every province on the Canada iGaming tracker.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

Quebec Court of Appeal: Kahnawake’s licensing decisions can be reviewed by Quebec courts

In February 2026 the Quebec Court of Appeal dismissed the Kahnawake Gaming Commission’s appeal in the Magic Palace case, confirming that the Quebec Superior Court may hear a judicial review of the commission’s licensing decisions. The decision, reported by The Eastern Door on 19 February 2026, upholds a November 2024 Superior Court ruling and sends the dispute back to that court on its merits.

The dispute behind the ruling

Magic Palace is a gaming hall in Kahnawake, on the south shore of Montreal in Quebec. In the first half of 2024 the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) suspended the venue’s gaming licence. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) then terminated the venue’s electronic gaming device royalty agreement, and the commission invalidated the licence outright without holding a hearing. By the time of the appeal ruling the hall had been closed for close to two years, and its owners were seeking permission to reopen plus C$220 million in damages.

The owners asked the Quebec Superior Court to review the commission’s decisions. The commission argued that Quebec courts had no jurisdiction because it is created by the Kahnawake Gaming Law, a Mohawk law. In November 2024 the Superior Court rejected that argument, and the commission appealed.

What the Court of Appeal decided

Writing for the court, Justice Frédéric Bachand framed the question as one of statutory interpretation rather than jurisdiction: whether Quebec’s Code of Civil Procedure extends the Superior Court’s power of judicial review to a private body such as the commission. The court found no reason the code would let the Superior Court order a private entity to perform an act while denying it the power to review that entity’s decisions.

The ruling is narrow. In its own statement the commission stressed that the Court of Appeal did not address the specifics of Magic Palace’s case and did not rule on whether the application is well founded. It simply concluded that the Superior Court may hear it. Whether the suspension and invalidation were lawful, and whether damages are owed, remains to be decided.

The wider jurisdiction question

On 13 May 2024 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the MCK’s constitutional challenge to the iGaming Ontario model, finding that iGaming Ontario’s oversight of private operators satisfies the Criminal Code requirement that a province “conduct and manage” a lottery scheme. The MCK said later in May 2024 that it would not appeal and would pursue its interest in gaming through other avenues.

One of those avenues is Parliament. Bill S-241, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Indian Act, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Scott Tannas on 20 November 2025. It would recognise that First Nations governments may conduct, manage or license gaming on their reserve lands on the same footing as provinces, with notice to federal and provincial governments but no requirement for their approval. It revives Bill S-268, which was introduced in 2023 and died at committee stage when Parliament’s session ended in January 2025, and this time the MCK supports it. When the Court of Appeal ruled, the bill was at second reading in the Senate. It has since passed second reading and is in committee, and it would still need to pass the House of Commons.

What it means for players

For a Canadian player, the practical picture has not changed. Sites licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission are accessible from most provinces, but they are not part of the regulated markets in Ontario or Alberta and offer no provincial complaint route. The Magic Palace ruling means a Quebec court can examine how the commission handles a licence, but it does not make a Kahnawake licence a provincial one. Check your province’s page on this site for the regulated options and the legal age where you live.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.

British Columbia’s gambling oversight in 2026: the Independent Gambling Control Office replaces GPEB

British Columbia has a new gambling regulator. On 13 April 2026 the Independent Gambling Control Office (IGCO) replaced the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB) as the province’s regulator of gambling and horse racing, the same day the province’s modernised Gaming Control Act came into force. The change was announced by the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General on 2 December 2025 and confirmed by the IGCO itself on its launch day.

What changed on 13 April 2026

The new Gaming Control Act was passed by the legislature in the fall of 2022 but only took effect on 13 April 2026, once the regulations and the new office were ready. The province’s announcement tied the reform to two independent reviews, the German Report and the Cullen Commission on money laundering. The Independent Gambling Control Office says the change fulfils a government commitment to separate the regulatory and revenue generation functions of gambling. The act responds with five structural changes: an independent regulator, clearer separation of roles between that regulator and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), a standards-based regulatory model, responsibility for anti-money-laundering placed with the regulator, and the power to issue directives to BCLC without the minister’s consent.

GPEB was a branch inside the ministry. The IGCO is headed by a general manager, Sam MacLeod, who makes and enforces regulations for gambling and horse racing. The office oversees BCLC’s commercial gambling, charitable gambling and the horse-racing industry, and it continues to administer Gambling Support BC, the province’s free counselling and outreach programme. The IGCO also gained its own website and communications function, with a commitment to publish research, regulatory decisions and enforcement actions.

The act also rewrote the industry’s fee structure for the first time in more than 15 years. Fees for casinos and charitable gaming events are now based on revenue rather than a flat amount, and new fee categories were created for online gaming supplies to reflect the growth of BCLC’s PlayNow.com. Those fees fall on operators, suppliers and gaming workers, not on players.

What did not change

BCLC still conducts and manages all commercial gambling in the province, including casinos and online play. PlayNow.com remains the only online gambling site legally offered in British Columbia, and the provincial government’s own gambling page, updated after 13 April 2026, states that plainly. British Columbia has not followed Ontario and Alberta in opening an open licensing market for private operators, and nothing in the new act sets one up. The minimum age remains 19.

The reform therefore changes who watches BCLC, not who runs the games. The IGCO can now direct BCLC on standards, compliance and anti-money-laundering controls without going through the minister, which was one of the Cullen Commission’s central recommendations.

What it means for players

For anyone in British Columbia who plays on PlayNow.com, nothing changes at the account level: the same site, the same GameSense tools for limits and breaks, the same age of 19. The difference is behind the scenes. Complaints about how gambling is conducted in the province now go to an office that is independent of the ministry and of BCLC’s revenue mandate, and that office is committed to publishing its decisions. Offshore sites that accept British Columbians remain outside this system entirely, with no IGCO oversight and no local complaint route. Our Canada iGaming tracker records British Columbia as a single-operator province.

Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.