Online casino legislation in Ontario

Big news for Canadian fans of online games : the state of Ontario has just legalized the presence of online casinos on its territory. This is the first state in the country to take the plunge. Many online gaming platforms, including big names like Bet365 and FanDuel , wasted no time in applying for their gaming license. The state of Ontario is indeed a new market representing a great development opportunity, with in particular the capital Ottawa and the largest Canadian city, Toronto.

Ontario: the first Canadian state to legalize online gaming platforms

Since April 4, 2023, online games are now allowed in the province of Ontario , in Canada. It is the first in the country to legalize this and this announcement has had the effect of delighting companies in the sector. While the platforms of online casinos and sports betting have tended to democratize for several years, Canada was one of the last big markets to resist and prohibit these activities.

The justification for this new legislation lies in several points. First of all, the decision-makers of this reform argue that by legalizing this sector, it will be easier to control it and avoid fraud. Previously, online gaming platforms were still present in Ontario but from illegal way . This led to fraud and many people were able to be scammed.

In addition, this new reform will prevent minors from accessing these gaming sites. It was very easy for them to access it when the illegal platforms were in place. Then the legalization is also intended to counter the money laundering in the industry. Overall, this serves to control the sector and thus eradicate illegal platforms.

A huge new market opening up

This news had the effect of delighting the players in the sector, because Ontario represents a market estimated at more than a billion dollars . This province contains the cities of Ottawa and Toronto, which both have about 4 million inhabitants, which explains the value of this market.

In addition, online operators will only be required to pay $100,000 per year per gaming site, as registration fees, as well as 20% of their annual profits. This announcement has greatly displeased the owners of land-based casinos who, on the other hand, are required to 55% of their annual profits to the province. The latter fear that online platforms will take advantage of this low taxation to finance techniques intended to attract customers from physical casinos to online casinos.

Especially since this is already slightly the case with their important advertising campaigns. Since online gaming sites have much less fees to pay than a land-based casino (no need to pay the rent of a physical casino, large electricity bills or staff salaries), they can afford to finance advertising campaigns abundant. We regularly notice posters for sports betting sites on bus stops or in the subway, for example. Even on television, we find more and more advertisements for these sites.

Online casinos could therefore attract the clientele of land-based casinos in addition to their own.