Growth is inevitable
Canada’s online gambling market is set up for massive growth in the very near future. At the same time, provincial and federal authorities will restrain that growth, preventing it from expanding unbridled. This is the latest update on Canada’s igaming market.
Increased responsible gambling regulations; limited advertising
As they prepare for online gambling markets to grow across the country, authorities are working to implement more extensive responsible gambling legislation. This will include limitations on gambling advertising.
Currently, Bill S-269 is under consideration at the federal level. The bill aims to create a national framework on advertising for sports betting, and is now waiting for its first reading in the House of Commons after completing its third reading in the Senate this past November.
The Bill will likely align itself with Ontario’s update to its Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming (RSIG) last February that banned the use of athletes and celebrities in advertising for online gambling. These are the types of limitations on gambling advertising we can expect to see more of across Canada as the market moves towards being regulated.
Follow Ontario’s model
Gambling regulations are meant to keep Canadian players, and especially those who are most vulnerable to gambling addictions, safe. A quickly expanding online gambling market comes with added risks to that safety, as operators compete for space in the market. It is important for the safety of Canadians to ensure that market doesn’t target or appeal to young people, or condone socially or financially irresponsible gambling behaviour.
With Ontario being the first fully-regulated gambling market in Canada, the province has done the necessary work to protect individuals from the impact of advertising, and, thus, serves as a blueprint for other provinces and territories. This is one reason why Bill S-269 – and other provincial regulations – is likely to follow Ontario’s lead with the RSIG.
Real reasons for the follow
All of this is really in preparation for the other big reason other provinces are likely to follow Ontario’s lead: because of the market’s proven profitability.
Over the past year, according to iGaming Ontario, wagers and revenue have been increasing, year-over-year, by 31.7% and 35.4%, respectively. The latest quarter shows a total revenue of $738 million.
Even if their province has only a fraction of the population of Ontario, that is still a lot of potential tax revenue provincial governments are missing out on without their own regulated market like Ontario’s. Provinces and territories across Canada are therefore preparing to join the online gambling market; and, of course, they want to do so quickly.
This is the year Alberta regulates
Bill 16, the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, was just passed in Alberta at the end of 2024, setting the province up to be the next to regulate an online gambling market. As the Bill’s name suggests, it reduces the number of barriers lawmakers must overcome to amend gambling laws in Alberta.
This of course will make creating an igaming market in the province easier, and we could see Alberta opening that market as soon as this year, now that Bill 16 is passed and the path forward so much clearer. We’re willing to bet on it.
Let’s deal: other provinces and territories to follow
Alberta is likely to be the first to follow Ontario’s lead, but we expect that it will not be the only one – even this year. Other provinces and territories are working to regulate online gambling, just as Ontario has, and for the same reasons: to protect vulnerable players, to police money laundering, and to take advantage of a lucrative igaming market in Canada.
As Ontario has knocked down barriers and proven the market’s unquestionable viability in Canada, 2025 is likely to be the year Alberta and others follow that lead with their own regulated online gambling markets – or, at the very least, with laying a lot more groundwork towards such regulation soon.
And the sooner they have a proper seat at the table, clearly the better too.
