Ontario’s regulated online gambling market has grown rampantly since it launched more than three years ago. But iGaming Ontario (iGO) operators had never broken the $8 billion barrier for total bets in a month before. Until May.

iGO’s latest monthly financial numbers illustrate the biggest and best month ever since the market opened in April 2022, both in terms of total wagering amount and operators’ revenue.

Operator earnings surge 40% in a year

Aggregate cash wagers for online casino, online sports betting and online poker eclipsed $8.06 billion, up 3% from April and beating March’s previous all-time high of $7.95 billion. The total dollar amount wagered in Ontario’s regulated market is up 28.9% from this time last year.

Operators’ non-adjusted gross gaming revenue (NAGGR) revenue also hit a new all-time record, up 8% over April to reach $338.0 million. Those total operator earnings are $10 million more than the previous record, set in January of this year, and an impressive 40.5% more than May 2024.

NAGGR includes total cash wagers, including rake fees, tournament fees and other fees, minus player winnings.

In May, 49 commercial online gambling operators were live in the market, in addition to Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), which does not report to iGO. That total number has risen from 50 to 51 in June due to the launch of Maverick Games two weeks ago.

The new highs in both handle and revenue in May came despite the number of active player accounts falling from 1.09 million in April to less than 1.07 million in May. That figure is down 5.4% from the all-time high of 1.13 million reported in February.

But those 1.07 million active accounts earned operators an average of $316 in May, the highest dollar value since September of last year.

Online casino gets more and more lucrative

As everyone who pays attention will know, Ontario’s regulated market is dominated hugely by online casino, including slots, table games, live dealer and peer-to-peer bingo. That vertical consistently accounts for roughly 85% of total cash wagers and at least 70% of operators’ earnings.

In May, online casino set a new bar.

$6.95 billion of the $8.06 billion in wagers (86%) were on online casino games, a new all-time record and a year-over-year rise of 30.9%. Of the total operator earnings of $338 million, a new record of $259.8 million was attributable to digital casino play, 77% of the total. Operator earnings from online casino have grown 45.5% in a year.

Part of that dominance is that there are many more licensed sites offering that vertical than there are offering sports betting. But, more than ever, it’s clear that online casino is where the money is.

Sports betting spending falls, but operators rebound

In a month that included two full NHL Playoffs series wins for the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs losing in seven to the Florida Panthers, the NBA conference semi-finals and finals and the Toronto Blue Jays going 16-12 across 28 games, Ontario’s regulated sportsbooks enjoyed their second-highest revenue total of 2025 so far.

Sportsbooks made $71.8 million, up 11% from April and 26.6% from May 2024. That’s a big rebound after April 2025’s revenue total had been worse than April 2024’s.

That was despite sports betting handle actually falling month over month, down from $1.07 billion to $972 million. The total value of sports bets placed in May is up a modest 18.5% from last year.

Online poker accounted for $144 million in wagers and $6.3 million in operator revenue.

Ontario Minister for Tourism, Culture and Gaming Stan Cho said at Canadian Gaming Summit last week that the province expects to see iGO operators make $3.7 billion in annual gaming revenue in 2025.

Meanwhile, the total lifetime wagering handle in the 38 months since Ontario launched regulated online gambling is now more than $197 billion and will break the $200 billion barrier in June. Licensed operators have made more than $7.6 billion, and the province’s 20% tax rate on online gambling has yielded $1.5 billion in tax revenue in just over three years.

And all of this does not include the play still occurring on OLG’s platform, which still holds a sizeable chunk of the market, estimated to be around 20%.

Per studies, around 84% of all online gambling in Ontario is estimated to take place on either iGO’s operators’ platforms or OLG’s. A recent study from Ipsos and the Canadian Gaming Association found that 16.3% of respondents gamble only on unregulated websites, and one-fifth of the remaining 83.7% use both licensed and unlicensed platforms.