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Online casinos under Ontario rules
Ontario has run a regulated online gambling market since April 4, 2022, with a public list of legal sites. This page explains how that market works, and how the paid links on this guide's home page work too.
Written by the Joseph Drive desk Checked October 13, 2026
How Ontario's online market works
Ontario's regulated online gambling market opened on April 4, 2022. iGaming Ontario conducts and manages the online gambling that private operators offer, and the AGCO regulates it. For a private online casino, the rule is plain. It is legal in Ontario only with AGCO registration and an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Both are needed, not just one.
OLG.ca is the other piece of the picture. It is Ontario's government-run online casino, not one of the private operators. So when a private online casino says it is legal in Ontario, registration plus an agreement is what that should mean. A slick homepage proves neither one.
Checking a site before you play
The official list of regulated online gambling sites is the iGaming Ontario directory at igamingontario.ca. Before you play anywhere, look the site up there. You must be 19 or older, and you must be physically in Ontario while you play.
BetGuard (betguard.ca), run by iGaming Ontario, lets a person 19 or older exclude themselves from every regulated Ontario online site at once, OLG.ca included. It stops at the screen, though: land-based casinos are not covered. For those, My PlayBreak, OLG's self-exclusion program for Ontario casinos, applies. A casino break lasts 3 or 6 months, or 1 to 5 years, bars entry to every Ontario casino and cannot be cancelled early. To enrol, call the OLG Support Centre at 1-800-387-0098 or ask staff at a casino.
How this guide gets paid
Paid links appear only on this guide's home page, each marked Ad: one in the menu, one under the first screen and one near the end. They lead to a private online casino partner. It is not named here, and it can change. The guide earns a commission on those links.
The guide does not check that partner, so check any online casino against the official directory described above before you play. That partner has no connection with the venue on Joseph Drive, its operator or the provincial lottery corporation. Links to the venue, the town, the province, the lottery corporation and help services are never paid.
Quick questions
How can you tell an online casino is legal in Ontario?
Look it up in the iGaming Ontario directory at igamingontario.ca, the official list of regulated online gambling sites. A private site also needs AGCO registration and an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.
Can a summer visitor from outside Ontario play online in Wasaga Beach?
Yes, if you are 19 or older and physically in Ontario while you play. Check the site in the iGaming Ontario directory before you start.
Does BetGuard cover the casino on Joseph Drive?
No, BetGuard covers every regulated Ontario online gambling site, OLG.ca included, but not land-based casinos. For the casino on Joseph Drive and every other Ontario casino, OLG's My PlayBreak self-exclusion program applies. To enrol, call the OLG Support Centre at 1-800-387-0098 or ask staff at a casino.