A lot happens in a year, and it can be hard to keep track. The last 12 months brought several big developments in both iGaming and land-based gaming that could have a notable impact on 2026.
Here, we round up the biggest Canadian gaming storylines of 2025.
FINTRAC fretting
FINTRAC made spring headlines when it came to light that Ontario’s licensed online casinos couldn’t use the financial transactions and reporting centre’s web portal to file any suspicious transaction reports for roughly an entire year between March 2024 and March 2025 after a cyberattack. iGaming Ontario (iGO) is developing its own automated system for filing such reports and hopes to roll it out in 2026.
While we’re talking about FINTRAC, the agency is being challenged in court by numerous gaming entities including the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA), which allege erroneous and unfair fines for lack of compliance.
Bodog banishment
Canadian Lottery Coalition (CLC) member lotteries took an unprecedented step in January when they took Caribbean-based Bodog to court in Manitoba, alleging it was offering illegal gambling in the province. And they scored a landmark win when, in May, a judge granted the application for a permanent injunction and ordered the offshore operator to shut down in the province.
The judge wrote that he was left with no other choice as Bodog’s brazen and “illegal” actions violated numerous federal and provincial laws, and he also upheld that the Criminal Code gives provincial governments the exclusive authority to conduct and manage gaming in their provinces. The CLC told Canadian Gaming Business the verdict was “a win that should resonate all the way across the Canadian gaming industry.”
Alberta anticipation
What started as a year of excitement regarding Alberta iGaming fizzled out a tad, but the official passage and enactment of the iGaming Alberta Act made it official: Regulated commercial online gambling is coming. It’s just a matter of when and how.
Minister Dale Nally promised in June that regulations and other developments would be announced in due course. Fast-forward six months and there has been little in the way of publicly disclosed progress, as operators keep pushing back their projected launch timelines (current estimate: mid-2026). No specifics have really been given by the government, although Nally’s office told Canadian Gaming Business in late November that the Alberta iGaming Corporation and market regulations should be finalized early in 2026.
First Nations forays
Moving further west to B.C., one of the most interesting ongoing storylines has been local First Nations’ moves into gaming ownership. Great Canadian Entertainment continued what it started in mid-2024 by selling off several of its B.C. casinos to First Nations groups, including the casino by Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse and River Rock Casino Resort, the largest casino resort in Western Canada.
In all cases, the respective Indigenous group involved cited a desire to move into casino ownership as a step towards self-determination and self-sufficiency for its community and its people. It’s been a fascinating development in brick-and-mortar gaming, and we’re keen to see what may happen in 2026.
Advertising anxieties… again
For the second year in a row, the Senate passed a bill that would establish national guidelines on how sports betting operators can advertise across Canada. Sen. Marty Deacon’s S-211, the 2025 version of S-269, has already had a reading in the House, something its predecessor never received, and could make further progress towards being passed in 2026.
Among the proposals mooted in session were a whistle-to-whistle ban on broadcast ads during games and preventing in-game promotions within betting apps. While Deacon acknowledged the full ban she would prefer is unlikely, she and more than 40 other senators then wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney in November to urge his federal government to prohibit all sports betting advertising nationwide.
Permission to pool?
In terms of developments that could have a lasting and far-reaching impact, the Court of Appeal verdict that Ontario would be legally clear to expand peer-to-peer iGaming across borders may take some beating. The provincial government asked the question in February 2024 and got the answer it hoped for in November, one that the Canadian Gaming Association called “a significant victory” that could greatly expand online poker and daily fantasy sports.
Actually working out how to do that – and with which jurisdictions – could take a long time. But iGO President and CEO Joseph Hillier told Canadian Gaming Business that the potential is big and could extend beyond poker and DFS to things like online casino. There’s also the not-so-small matter of an appeal lodged in the Supreme Court by three provincial lottery corporations.
Ontario, oh my
Speaking of online casino, Ontario’s regulated iGaming market continued to grow remarkably in 2025. In November 2024, total monthly handle was $7.46 billion; by November 2025, it reached $9.33 billion, up 25% year over year. In the same period, gross gaming revenue rose from $292 million to $406 million (+39%) and the number of active player accounts grew from 1.0 million to 1.3 million (+28%). Online casino continues to dominate, and 48 licensed operators run a total of 82 regulated sites at the latest count.
Hillier’s predecessor, Martha Otton, said as far back as 18 months ago that the numbers surely would have to taper off and flatten out at some point. Maybe sometime in 2026 will be that point. For now, this booming iCasino-heavy market just keeps on booming.
