Canada has no single national online-casino licence. Three different regimes decide which sites may legally take your money, and which applies to you depends on your province: iGaming Ontario and the AGCO for Ontario, the AGLC for Alberta, and — for the rest of the country, where no provincial market yet exists — internationally licensed offshore sites. This page explains the three and points you to the right list for where you are.
Last updated: 21 October 2026 | Author: Tom Perkins, iGaming Editor
“Licensed in Canada” does not mean one thing, because gambling is regulated province by province rather than nationally. Two provinces have opened their own regulated online markets with their own registered operators; everywhere else, the online casinos available to players hold overseas licences instead. Using the wrong list for your province is the common mistake, so start by finding yourself below.
Ontario — iGaming Ontario and the AGCO
Ontario is the furthest ahead. Since 4 April 2022 it has run an open, regulated market in which private operators compete, each having cleared two gates: registration with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the regulator, and an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario (iGO), the body that contracts the sites. An operator on the iGO list has passed both and may legally serve Ontario players; one that is not on the list may not, whatever licence it advertises. If you are in Ontario, that list is the only thing worth checking before you deposit.
Best online casinos in Ontario → — the iGO-licensed operators, how AGCO registration works, payments, and how to verify any site against the iGaming Ontario list.
Alberta — the AGLC
Alberta is building the second provincial market. The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis regulator (AGLC) has run the government’s own PlayAlberta site for years, and the province has moved to open a broader regulated iGaming market with registered private operators, overseen through a new provincial framework. The details differ from Ontario’s — different regulator, different register, different brands — so Alberta players need the Alberta list, not Ontario’s.
Alberta online casinos → — the AGLC and provincial iGaming registers, what changed, and how Alberta’s market differs from Ontario’s.
The rest of Canada — offshore sites
Outside Ontario and Alberta, no province yet runs its own open commercial online-casino market, so the sites available to players are licensed offshore — typically in Curaçao or Anjouan — rather than by a Canadian regulator. These sites are not illegal for a Canadian player to use, but they sit outside any provincial framework: there is no AGCO or AGLC standing behind them, and no provincial complaints route if something goes wrong. That makes the licence and the operator’s record worth checking carefully, which is what our offshore pages are for.
Our rest-of-Canada casino guide → — our coverage of the internationally licensed sites open to Canadians elsewhere, with licences read against each regulator’s own register. If you are in Ontario or Alberta, use your provincial list above instead: a provincially regulated site and an offshore one are never the same choice.
Which applies to me?
It comes down to where you are physically located, not where you were born or where you bank.
- In Ontario: use an iGaming Ontario-listed operator. See best online casinos in Ontario.
- In Alberta: use the province’s regulated options. See Alberta online casinos.
- Anywhere else in Canada: the available sites are offshore-licensed. See our Canada coverage, and check the licence before you deposit.
The two regulated provinces each enforce physical location through IP and GPS geolocation, so an Ontario or Alberta account cannot be used for real-money play from another province. If you move or travel, the applicable regime changes with you.
Why we keep the tiers separate
We never mix a provincially regulated operator and an offshore one on the same page. A site registered with the AGCO or the AGLC has met a provincial standard and can be held to it; an offshore site has not. Presenting the two side by side would blur a distinction that matters a great deal if you ever need recourse, and provincial advertising standards for registered operators require it. So Ontario and Alberta brands live only on their province pages, and our offshore pages carry only offshore sites, each clearly marked for players outside Ontario and Alberta. The working data behind all of this — our Ontario register dataset and more — is published on the data hub.
About the author: Tom Perkins is the iGaming Editor at NewCasino.ai. This page is a navigation and explainer page: it carries no casino listings and no affiliate links. The operator lists live on the province and offshore pages it links to.
Also read
- Best online casinos in Ontario 2026
- Alberta online casinos
- Rest-of-Canada casino guide
- The NewCasino.ai data hub
Last updated 21 October 2026 · Tom Perkins, iGaming editor