As Ontario looks back at three years of regulated online gambling and Alberta gears up to open its market in 2026, the Québec Online Gaming Coalition (QOGC) and other iGaming advocates have urged the Francophone province to heed lessons from across borders and stop missing out on huge revenues.

Québec remains a Loto-Québec monopoly when it comes to regulated online gambling. How well it is doing as an operator depends on who you ask.

The crown corporation, which serves as both the market regulator and the sole recognized operator in the province, this month posted fiscal year 2024–25 results that it called excellent. Total revenues were nearly $3 billion and consolidated net income exceeded $1.5 billion, both small increases from the previous year.

However, the QOGC contends the results suggest Loto-Québec “has shown no progress this year,” and argued that net income remains stagnant and is the latest step in a long-term decline when adjusted for inflation.

It’s worth noting in the below graphic that 2021 and 2022 were heavily COVID-impacted years for the industry.

Loto-Québec and its President Jean-François Bergeron have pegged the crown corporation’s market share of online gambling in the province at just below 50%. Data provided to Canadian Gaming Business last fall by research firm H2 Gambling Capital suggested it held around 44% of the online gambling market (not including lottery) last year.

‘Leaving lot of money on table’

At the Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto, QOGC spokesperson Ariane Gauthier, TRM Public Affairs President and Canadian Online Gaming Alliance spokesperson Troy Ross and Rubicon Strategy President Patrick Harris gave their takes on the state of online gaming in Québec, as well as numerous other provinces.

There, Ross presented research data which suggested that only around 27% of all online gambling in Québec takes place with Loto-Québec, leaving approximately 73% being conducted on unregulated platforms.

While that was not the worst split among the regions highlighted by Ross, the estimates suggested that Québec is missing out on more potential gross gaming revenue for operators and more potential tax revenue than any other province assessed.

“The evidence suggests they’re a long, long way from 40 or 50 or 60% market channelization,” Ross told the room. “Point is, these jurisdictions are leaving a lot of money on the table.”

With Gauthier present, the conversation quickly centred around Québec.

“Even if we take Loto-Québec’s claim to capture 60 or 50% of the market, it still leaves half of the players in an unregulated market,” she said. “That’s not acceptable. That’s not enough. Even in the best-case scenario, it’s not enough.”

‘Ontario story not told properly’

In her role with the QOGC, Gauthier speaks on behalf of the coalition’s member operators including DraftKings, FanDuel parent Flutter, BetMGM co-owner Entain, BetRivers owner Rush Street Interactive, Super Group’s Betway and Canadian brand Bet99.

All of those operators are licensed and active in the Ontario market, currently the only one in Canada in which commercial sportsbooks and online casinos are regulated and authorized to compete with the government’s own platform.

Ontario, as is well documented by both official numbers and research, boasts more than 80% of all online gambling play on regulated platforms. As the market has grown in gambling volume and revenue year by year, Ontario Lottery and Gaming’s (OLG) has been applauded for not only keeping pace but growing its own key metrics.

“What OLG has been able to do is demonstrate to other lottery corporations that this isn’t a big scary thing,” noted Harris on the CGS panel. “Lottery corporations can grow their market share and earn more revenue, all while taking in unregulated play and earning that extra revenue, as has been demonstrated in Ontario.”

As Gauthier sees it, the problem is that Québec is not well enough informed about that success story.

“As a monopoly and a corporation that wants to keep a monopoly — and that’s normal — [Loto-Québec] choose what kind of information they bring,” Gauthier told Canadian Gaming Business in a sit-down interview at CGS. “They don’t have an advantage to advertise the fact that the regulating private operation in Ontario is working.

“That’s why Quebecers are not presented with, I think, a fair perspective of what is going on in Ontario and how this system has helped channel the grey market, has improved their responsible gaming environment. If you only protect 20 or 25% of the players, how good is this? We have to talk about the success of the Ontario model and how it could benefit.”

“There is a kind of myth of distorted reality.”

Québec Online Gaming Coalition’s Ariane Gauthier

Part of the challenges, she suggested, lie in the socio-political makeup of Québec. Gauthier, who formerly held a number of roles within the provincial government, argued the province is fond of its government and its institutions, with a population that has a strong sense of Québecois identity and with a disproportionately high number of baby boomers.

“There is not a large appetite for change or uncertainty,” she told CGB. “There is a kind of myth of distorted reality that the coalition is quick to correct. We say, ‘please pay attention to this.’ The Ontario story is not told properly, and we try to change that.”

Alberta may put Québec efforts into overdrive

Ontario will not be Québec’s only example for much longer.

Before too long — early in 2026, says the government — Alberta will also launch regulated online gambling. There, unlike Ontario, the current monopoly operator, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), will also be the market regulator.

“Alberta’s case is very interesting for Québec, because Play Alberta is both the regulator and the operator, and it’s the same situation with Loto-Québec,” Gauthier noted to CGB. “That’s not how you build confidence, it’s not a proper governance structure. So, Alberta, I hope they will address this issue. All operators, public or private, should respond to the same rules and to an independent regulator. So I think Alberta’s case will bring this specific issue, and an example for Québec.”

Recent data from both Ross and the Canadian Gaming Association, in collaboration with Ipsos, have suggested that more than any other province, the vast majority of online gambling in Alberta takes place in the unregulated market. It is estimated that around 90% of Alberta online gamblers use unlicensed sites in the province.

“[Regulated online gambling] is not something crazy to do.”

Gauthier

Gauthier knows things will not move quickly in Québec. But she hopes that once Alberta launches, and once indications of how much play has been brought over from the unregulated market starts to emerge, it may force the issue.

“What we have to do to move the needle is to show how the current situation doesn’t respond to the current challenge,” she said. “Actually, it’s not relevant anymore. And the more examples we can show — this is what happened in Ontario, this is what happened in Alberta, this is what happened in other countries — the more examples and data points you get, the more reassuring it is.

“It’s not something crazy to do. It’s been tested elsewhere, even in Canada in the same legal framework. So I think that’s where we can bring change.”