By Olivia Sabell
April 23rd, 2025
BURLINGTON. ON
Online casinos have been a revelation in the gambling world since the beginning of the 21st century. Canada has been one of the strongest global economies throughout this period. Still, it wasn’t until recently that Canadian provinces warmed to regulating and taxing online casinos.
In Canada casinos are regulated by the province they are located in with Ontario having the best regulations.
It has been a global surge that has pulled many countries along with it. Unlike the UK, which was one of the first countries to regulate online casinos nationally, Canada’s provincial and fractured regulatory landscape meant that the rise of online casinos has taken a different trajectory.
It’s essential to distinguish between the federal regulations in Canada and the provincial bodies that oversee gambling competitions, including online casinos, but also encompass other gambling games, such as lotteries and sports betting.
Over the last decade, this has shaped the casino market in neighboring America rather than their European counterparts. Today, we will look at some nuances in the Canadian casino market and how they have affected the current market.
A changing landscape
In the late 1980s, Canada created a new landscape for land-based casinos. The first land-based casino opened in Winnipeg and became an entertainment venue featuring restaurants, hotels and other amenities.
A few years later, Montreal got in on the action. Although the first online casino emerged just a year after that, many within the casino industry were skeptical that the internet had a lasting place in the gambling world.
In the 1990s, few people had home PCs, and internet connections were slow and extremely expensive. It was a digital world of message boards and bookshops – the internet wasn’t the ubiquitous presence we see today in modern society.
Online casinos, of course, quickly proved to be a challenging, disruptive market for the traditional industry. The cost of accessing the internet decreased dramatically and the speed of connectivity soared, bringing tens of millions of people online within just a few years.
The global market’s interconnectivity meant that the best online casinos in Canada were companies establishing a presence in several other international markets. It became such a crowded and competitive market that experts started compiling reviews and assessments of the sites they believed stood out in this growing, saturated market.
Navigating local regulation in a global market
While the internet has introduced a range of innovations, it has proved to be a regulatory headache for governing bodies that look to provide oversight. Instrumental social media companies have shown just how difficult it can be to provide broad policing and taxation to markets that span dozens of countries, and online casinos have faced a similar fate.
By the early 2010s, propped up by the success of the online gambling market that had emerged in the UK, lobbyists and influential figures in online gambling were tirelessly searching for ways to get online casinos into the North American market, the biggest continental market.
Although the federal laws oversee the gambling market and its legality, they have devolved the regulatory powers to 13 different provincial governing bodies. While most of them are similar, it’s always a good idea to check the legality of online gambling in your province before you decide to sit down and play a casino game.
A rise in convenience
As soon as online casinos proved to be an alternative that was just as secure and as reliable as a land-based provider, interest in this new form of gambling soared.
There was a time before the advent of the internet when Canadian casino gamers would have to pack a bag, head down to the airport and fly to the US to scratch their gambling itch. However, online casinos meant Canadians could do this without leaving their homes. As soon as online casinos proved to be an alternative that was just as secure and as reliable as a land-based provider, interest in this new form of gambling soared..
Generally speaking, though, Canadians have only been able to access legal and regulated online gambling markets since this century, when regulatory changes allowed some of the world’s biggest sports betting companies to set up shop on Canada’s digital shores.
However, in the mid-2000s, a black market emerged in Canada, with millions of dollars’ worth of bets placed with offshore companies. This market forced the hand of regulators to some extent, as it was simply too difficult to police. Regulating, taxing and cycling these funds into community development projects became the only viable route.
The smartphone era
If online casinos weren’t convenient enough, the mid-2010s saw the rise of gaming apps and mobile gaming. Those who played at online casinos on their home PCs or laptops now had an even more convenient option: playing on the move via their iPads, tablets or smartphones.
This rise wasn’t unique to the Canadian market. Smartphones have transformed everything about our lives; we’re sure you don’t need us to tell you that. Online casinos simply surfed the crest of the wave that presented a fresh opportunity for their casinos to expand, and the rise in usage among Canadian customers was a microcosm of what was happening in the global iGaming market.
As the competition heated up, online casinos searched for ways to incentivize these promotions, offering free spins, matched deposits and other cost-effective promotions to get people to their sites ahead of the competition.
Final thoughts
VR gaming could well be the next technological advance that takes the sport to new heights.
Although Canada opted for a provincial and localized approach to regulation, many trends that resulted in the rise of online casinos are attributed to the broader pull of the global market. Countries like the UK pioneered their digital legislation in the early 2000s, creating a foundation whereby online casinos could launch their brands into the international market.
The UK tax base soared, generating tens of billions of pounds over the subsequent decade. Canada is a little behind in this curve, but the numbers are equally promising, especially if we combine online casinos with sportsbooks and lotteries as part of the complete market.
This trend will likely continue to adapt to technology over the next decade. It may take the form of VR gaming, further integration of AI, or casinos focusing on the rise of digital payment options; it could also be a combination of any of these aspects.
However, now that the sector has an appropriate regulatory framework and the number of Canadians accessing online casinos continues to rise, expect to see quick changes and serious growth over the next decade as it begins to take shape in a legal market.
Please stop promoting gambling.
Editor’s note: The gambling content you see is what pays the rent.
AND, the province of Ontario is the regulator of both on line and in casino gambling in the province.
A significant portion of the taxes collected go into the Trillium fund from which everyone in the province benefits.