Why Are Record Numbers of Canadians Now Signing Up With Licensed Online Casino Platforms?

By Sadie Smith

June 25th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

In January 2026, Ontario’s licensed online casino market logged its most active month on record: more than 1.326 million active registered accounts and .52 billion in player wagers handled by AGCO-authorized operators in a single month.

Those figures, released by iGaming Ontario and reported by Canadian Gaming Business, represent growth of nearly 20 percent year over year in active accounts alone — built on a market that didn’t exist in its current form four years ago.

That growth reflects a shift in how Canadians relate to online gambling — from a largely unregulated, offshore-dominated activity to one increasingly defined by licensed platforms with mandatory consumer protections. For anyone approaching a licensed platform for the first time, the new player casino information compiled by the information by onlinecasinosalberta.ca covers the practical fundamentals: age requirements, platform auditing standards, what deposit limits and self-exclusion tools look like in practice, and how to file a formal complaint with the regulator if something goes wrong.

The numbers tell a specific story

Ontario’s regulatory trajectory since April 2022 is worth examining as evidence, not just backdrop. The province’s licensed operators generated just over  billion in gross gaming revenue during 2025 — a 26 percent jump over 2024 in total wagering volume, approaching  billion for the year. Active player accounts grew 24.5 percent year over year in 2025 to reach 1.267 million by year end. A joint regulator study found that 83.7 percent of Ontario online gamblers surveyed in early 2025 reported using a regulated gambling site — a substantial majority, though one that also maps how far offshore activity still runs alongside the licensed market.

These are not indicators of a market normalizing gambling. They are indicators of a market capturing gambling that was already happening — and subjecting it to a compliance framework.

What’s actually driving new player sign-ups

The growth in new player accounts is not primarily advertising-driven, though licensed operators in Ontario carry significant marketing budgets. The structural driver is simpler: regulated platforms offer things offshore sites cannot credibly provide.

When a player creates an account with an AGCO-licensed operator, the platform is required to verify identity, present deposit limit options during onboarding, maintain transaction history accessible to the account holder for twelve months, and provide a dispute resolution mechanism backed by the regulator. The operator cannot simply disappear. The AGCO can be contacted if something goes wrong — a recourse unavailable when a site operates from a jurisdiction with no bilateral enforcement relationship with Canadian regulators.

As Burlington Gazette has tracked in its coverage of the Ontario market’s trajectory, the record growth has been accompanied by an increasingly structured consumer protection framework — one that has become a competitive feature rather than just a regulatory cost.

The offshore alternative and what it doesn’t offer

The offshore share of Canada’s online gambling market remains substantial — approximately 60 percent nationally, closer to 70 percent in provinces without competitive private licensing. Those platforms are not illegal to use in most Canadian jurisdictions. They are simply unregulated: not required to offer self-exclusion integration, independently audited RNG certification, or any dispute resolution beyond whatever terms the operator chooses to publish.

For new players in particular, the distinction matters in ways easy to overlook. A first-time user on an offshore platform has no PIPA-equivalent data protection, no guaranteed access to account history, and no regulator to contact if withdrawals are delayed or an account is suspended without explanation. What separates licensed from unlicensed operators is determined by the baseline obligations that come with the license rather than the operator’s discretion — which is the entire point of licensing.

Alberta’s launch and what it means for national growth

Ontario demonstrated the model. Alberta is now running it — with 28 AGLC-approved operators set to go live on July 13, 2026, including FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and most of the same platforms already active in Ontario. The Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) will handle commercial oversight alongside AGLC’s regulatory function, replicating Ontario’s dual-track structure in a province where roughly 70 percent of online gambling currently flows to offshore operators.

The reasonable extrapolation is that Canada’s active licensed-player count will keep rising — because Alberta’s launch extends the regulated alternative to four million adults who have largely been gambling offshore. If Alberta tracks Ontario’s four-year trajectory, the combined active account figure across Canada’s two regulated markets could approach two million by 2027. That isn’t a marketing projection. It’s an inference from four years of verified iGaming Ontario data applied to a province entering with the same operator lineup and a comparable offshore problem.