There are now a total of four Canadian lottery corporations appealing in the Supreme Court against Ontario’s idea of taking peer-to-peer iGaming play across borders.
Justice Sheilah Martin last week granted Loto-Québec’s request to join the international liquidity case as an appellant.
The Québec crown corporation filed a motion in mid-March to join the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC), British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) in appealing to Canada’s highest court against the idea that Ontario could allow players of peer-to-peer games such as daily fantasy sports and online poker to compete with people in other jurisdictions.
Canadian Gaming Business reached out to Loto-Québec for comment but had not heard back at the time of writing.
Lotteries mobilized after Ontario court green light
The ALC, BCLC and MBLL, which oversee gaming in six of Canada’s 10 provinces, are members of the Canadian Lottery Coalition (CLC), along with Loto-Québec. While the latter is a new party at the appeal stage, the other three were all intervenors in the original reference question about whether Ontario could offer international liquidity that was put to the Ontario Court of Appeal in early 2024.
For now, paid-entry DFS has no presence in Ontario’s regulated market, while peer-to-peer online poker’s impact is significantly limited by being fenced into the province. In the last available revenue report for Ontario iGaming, poker made up $135m of February wagering handle and $5.6m of operator revenue; those dollar amounts were both down year over year, and constituted just 1.6% of the total monthly handle and GGR.
But the appeals court issued a verdict last November that could change that, opining that it would indeed be legal under the Criminal Code for Ontario to do so.
However, the lotteries of B.C., Manitoba, and the Maritimes maintain that while the Criminal Code states that it is lawful for the government of a province to conduct and manage a lottery scheme “in that province”, Ontario’s proposed model would take some of the play outside of the province, and so would contravene the law.
A factum filed with the Supreme Court in February by the ALC, on behalf of the CLC, claimed that Ontario’s idea of international liquidity “flouts” the Criminal Code, despite the provincial appeals court’s opinion.
“While the issue today is international liquidity, the next case may involve a province seeking to assert authority to conduct lottery schemes that extend across the country,” said the ALC’s filing.
The appealing CLC members also alleged that Ontario-licensed operators advertise heavily in their provinces despite only the respective lotteries being recognized as authorized online gaming platforms. “The undisputed evidence shows that the private gambling operators with whom Ontario has already joined hands use their legal platforms in Ontario as springboards to promote illegal international websites to Canadians outside Ontario,” added the ALC’s factum.
Alberta regulator allowed to intervene
While Loto-Québec has now officially joined as an appellant, the government of Albertahas been granted leave to enter the conversation. The Attorney General of Alberta filed a motion last month seeking to intervene, and that motion was granted on April 13.
Last year, Alberta became just the second province after Ontario to legalize a commercial, regulated iGaming market, which will launch on July 13, 2026. Officials from both provinces have suggested that the two jurisdictions could look to link up peer-to-peer play in the future, something the Criminal Code allows for if both provinces agree.
“Under the iGaming Alberta Act, individuals outside of Canada are not prohibited from participating in an internet-based gaming site operated by a regulated agent of Alberta, provided that individual is permitted to do so by the laws of their jurisdiction,” wrote legal representatives for Alberta AG Mickey Amery in the March filing. “Consequently, this appeal will have a significant impact on determining the legality and operation of the iGaming Alberta Act.”
Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), the crown corporation that currently holds a monopoly on regulated iGaming in the province and will be the regulator of the upcoming open market, was an original member of the CLC.
Alberta signposted last month that if it were granted leave to intervene, it would argue on the side of Ontario, which posed the initial liquidity question in 2024 alongside the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA), FanDuel and PokerStars parent Flutter, GGPoker and World Series of Poker owner NSUS, and the Québec-based Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke.
Alberta’s minister responsible for iGaming, Dale Nally, told Canadian Gaming Business that “we look forward to participating in that process to provide our insights.”
Poker giants bite back at provincial lotteries
Since Alberta first filed to intervene, NSUS and Flutter have both filed their own factums in the Supreme Court. Each company accused the appealing lotteries of bringing up “irrelevant” information and making false accusations that their Ontario-licensed poker brands are partaking in illegal or illicit activity in other provinces.
“The appellants’ submissions build in irrelevant and unjustified allegations of illegality by Flutter and others in the industry that no court has decided and to which Flutter has had no opportunity to meaningfully respond,” reads part of Flutter’s filing. “The Appellants place significant emphasis on their view that current iGO operators’ affiliated international websites are operating illegally in other provinces. They specifically make scandalous accusations against Flutter.”
Flutter argued that exactly how Ontario would run its end of shared-liquidity peer-to-peer play is not relevant. “Ultimately, this reference is not about the nuances of what Ontario’s scheme will look like — it is about what the law permits Ontario to do.”
Meanwhile, NSUS argued that while Ontario would continue to conduct and manage all aspects of Ontario play, it would not conduct and manage aspects of the proposed gaming scheme outside of Ontario, nor would it infringe on how other provinces want to run their own gaming markets.
“Permitting Ontario to link its provincially-run lottery scheme to foreign countries does not limit the ability of any other Canadian province to decide what gaming activities it will permit within its own borders,” added the GGPoker parent. “Under the proposed model, when individuals in Canada access gaming, whether it involves players outside of Canada or not, it will be through a scheme that is conducted and managed or otherwise licensed by the government of a province, as Parliament intended.
“The proposed model does not require the Government of Ontario to conduct or manage a foreign lottery scheme. Nor does it allow a foreign lottery scheme to be operated in Canada.”
