Ontario’s regulated online gambling market generated over $4 billion in gaming revenue in 2025, according to data published by iGaming Ontario. That’s a 34% jump from the year before, built on nearly $98.
Ontario's regulated online gambling market generated over $4 billion in gaming revenue in 2025, according to data published by iGaming Ontario. That's a 34% jump from the year before, built on nearly $98.3 billion in total wagers placed across licensed platforms. For residents of Sarnia, a city of roughly 81,600 people with no major land-based casino, those numbers represent something worth paying attention to.
The province now has more licensed online gambling operators than any other jurisdiction in North America. And yet, for plenty of people in smaller cities across Ontario, the basics remain unclear: which sites are actually regulated, how you verify them and what protections you're entitled to as a player. If you've been browsing options on PlayCanada.com or elsewhere, this is the practical rundown.
When Ontario opened its regulated iGaming market on April 4, 2022, just 12 operators were approved to go live. By the end of 2025, that number had grown to 48 licensed operators running 82 gaming websites, according to iGaming Ontario and reporting by 15M. Online casino games account for about 75% of the market's revenue, with sports betting and peer-to-peer poker making up the remainder.
To put those figures in local terms: Sarnia has never had easy access to a major casino. Point Edward's small facility is nearby, but the options have always been limited compared to cities like Niagara Falls or Windsor. The regulated online market changes that equation entirely. Those 82 licensed gaming sites are accessible to every adult in Lambton County with a phone and an internet connection.
That's more variety than most cities with physical casinos have ever had. And the market is still growing; Ontario finished 2025 with 1.27 million active player accounts in December alone, a 24.5% increase from the same month in 2024.
With dozens of operators competing for attention (and advertising aggressively to get it), the most useful thing a Sarnia resident can do before depositing a single dollar is check whether the site is actually licensed.
It takes about 30 seconds.
iGaming Ontario maintains a public directory of every regulated operator and their gaming sites at igamingontario.ca. If a platform isn't listed there, it isn't regulated in Ontario. It's the same principle as checking whether a restaurant has passed its health inspection; you probably wouldn't eat somewhere that couldn't show you the certificate, and the logic holds here.
A joint study by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and iGaming Ontario, fielded in early 2025, found that 83.7% of Ontario players were already using regulated sites. That's encouraging, but it also means roughly one in six players was still gambling on platforms outside the provincial framework. The gap likely isn't a deliberate choice for most of those players. They probably don't know that iGaming Ontario publishes a full directory of licensed sites, or that its 2024-25 annual report lays out exactly how the market works.
Here's what regulated sites are required to provide:
On an unregulated site, none of that is guaranteed. Payouts can be delayed or withheld entirely, your personal information could be shared without consent and there's no regulator to take your complaint to.
Ontario's consumer protections go further than most players realise. Every licensed operator must achieve and maintain accreditation through the Responsible Gambling Council's RG Check program, which sets standards for how sites support players at risk of harm. Player awareness of responsible gambling tools reached 71.5% in the 2024-25 fiscal year, up from 65.4% the year before, according to iGaming Ontario's annual report. That's improving, but it means nearly three in ten players on regulated sites still aren't fully aware of the tools available to them.
One of the more significant developments is a centralized self-exclusion system currently being built by iGaming Ontario, the first of its kind in North America. When it launches (expected in 2025-2026), a single registration will opt a player out of every regulated gaming site in Ontario at once. Right now, self-exclusion has to be done operator by operator, which is cumbersome enough that many people simply don't bother.
The AGCO has also shown it's willing to act when operators break the rules. In 2025, it fined Casino Days CA$54,000 for running misleading bonus promotions that encouraged reckless play. That kind of enforcement only happens within a regulated framework.
It's worth noting that iGaming Ontario itself was restructured in May 2025 under the iGaming Ontario Act, becoming an independent Crown agency that reports directly to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. That separation from the AGCO was designed to strengthen governance by keeping the body that regulates operators distinct from the one that manages their commercial agreements.
If you've been playing online without checking whether your site is regulated, what protections have you been assuming exist that might not?
Ontario built an online gambling market that's genuinely competitive (48 operators, 82 sites, $4 billion in annual revenue) while embedding consumer protections that most players in other provinces don't have access to. For Sarnia, where the nearest significant casino has always required a drive, the regulated market puts real choice and real safeguards within reach.
The framework is still maturing. A province-wide self-exclusion system is on its way, iGaming Ontario now operates independently and the target is to get 90% of Ontario's online players onto regulated platforms by 2026-27.
Your part in it is straightforward. Check the iGaming Ontario directory. Verify your sites are listed. Use the responsible gambling tools that regulated platforms are required to provide. And if you haven't taken those 30 seconds to confirm where you're playing is actually licensed, what's stopping you?
