Online in Ontario
How online play works in Ontario
Ontario has run a regulated online gambling market since April 4, 2022, with a public directory of legal sites. This page sets out how that market is built, and how the paid links on this guide's home page operate.
Written by the Lakehead desk Checked October 13, 2026
A regulated market
Ontario's regulated online gambling market opened on April 4, 2022. iGaming Ontario conducts and manages the online gambling offered by private operators. The AGCO regulates it. A private online casino is legal in Ontario only with two things: AGCO registration and an iGaming Ontario operating agreement. A site missing either one falls outside the law in Ontario.
Alongside the private operators sits a public one. OLG.ca is Ontario's government-run online casino. For readers at the Lakehead, from Marathon in the east to Kenora in the west, the framework is the same. A familiar logo or a Canadian mailing address on a site proves neither of the two requirements.
Checking a site before play
The official list of regulated online gambling sites is the iGaming Ontario directory at igamingontario.ca. Online play is 19+, and it is allowed only while the player is physically in Ontario. That last rule matters at the Lakehead. Duluth, Minnesota, lies 283 km southwest in a straight line. Once a player crosses into Minnesota, Ontario online play is no longer allowed.
BetGuard (betguard.ca), run by iGaming Ontario, lets a person 19 or older exclude themselves from every regulated Ontario online site at once. It covers OLG.ca as well. Land-based casinos are outside it. Those fall under OLG's My PlayBreak program, where a casino break lasts 3 or 6 months, or 1 to 5 years. The break covers every Ontario casino and cannot be cancelled early.
How this guide is paid
Paid links appear on one page of this guide, the home page, and nowhere else. Each is marked Ad: one in the menu, one under the first screen and one near the end. They lead to a private online casino partner that is not named here and can change. The guide earns a commission from those links.
A commission is not an endorsement, and the desk makes no promise about the partner. Readers should check any online casino, this one included, against the official directory described above. The partner has no connection with the venue this guide covers. Links to the venue's own site, the provincial lottery corporation, the province and help services are never paid.
Questions from the road
IHow can a reader tell if an online casino is legal in Ontario?
The iGaming Ontario directory at igamingontario.ca is the official list of regulated online gambling sites. If a private site is missing from that list, it is not part of Ontario's regulated market.
IICan someone from Thunder Bay keep playing during a trip to Minnesota?
No, Ontario online play is allowed only while the player is physically in Ontario. Players must also be 19 or older. Crossing into Minnesota ends that permission.
IIIDoes BetGuard cover the casino in Thunder Bay?
No, BetGuard covers every regulated Ontario online gambling site at once, but not land-based casinos. For the casino on Cumberland St. South, the program is My PlayBreak, OLG's self-exclusion program for Ontario casinos. To enrol, call the OLG Support Centre at 1-800-387-0098 or ask staff at a casino.