Casino Apps by Province: Rules and Ages Across Canada

Two. Ontario opened its market in April 2022: operators register with the AGCO and offer their games under an agreement with iGaming Ontario. Alberta followed with its own registration through the AGLC, next to the provincial platform, Play Alberta. Everywhere else the province runs the only licensed online casino itself.

It is 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, and 19 in every other province and in the three territories. The age that applies is the one where you are standing when you play, not the one on your driver’s licence.

No. Every regulated app checks your location before it lets you play, and an Ontario app refuses play in Alberta and the other way round. That is why several brands publish one app per province, with names that differ only by a word.

OLG runs the platform in Ontario and Play Alberta the one in Alberta. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba use PlayNow, Quebec has Loto-Québec, and Atlantic Lottery serves New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. The territories have no online casino of their own.

It asks the phone for its location, which comes from GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile networks, and checks it at login and again during play. If location is switched off, the signal is weak near a border, or the app detects a VPN, it holds the games until the check passes. Allow location while the app is open and it rarely gets in the way.

In Ontario, iGaming Ontario publishes the list of operators that run games under an agreement with it, and the AGCO lists its registrants. In Alberta the AGLC publishes its list of registered iGaming operators. A brand that appears on neither list is not part of either regulated market, whatever its app says.

Because the rules differ. We only show an operator’s app where that operator may be shown: registered operators in Ontario and Alberta, and the provincial platform everywhere. If you travel, the App Index changes with you.