Top Legal Online Gambling options for Canada 2024

Online Gambling in Canada

Navigating the intricate world of online gambling, especially in a vast country like Canada, often presents a myriad of questions. Foremost among these is the quest for legitimacy: How does one ensure they’re diving into the virtual realm of betting on platforms that are both licensed and safe? With a mosaic of jurisdictions, each with its distinct regulations, deciphering the authenticity of gambling sites can seem like a daunting puzzle.

However, there’s a fresh wind of clarity blowing over Canada’s online gambling landscape. Most notably, Ontario, one of the country’s most populous provinces, heralded a landmark moment on the 4th of April, 2022. Spearheaded by the esteemed AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) in collaboration with IGO (iGaming Ontario), a comprehensive regulatory framework was unveiled. This blueprint for online gaming not only instills confidence among players but also offers guidance to operators, ensuring a transparent and fair gaming environment. The new framework casts a wide net, encompassing all facets of online gambling—from the thrill of Online Casinos and the adrenaline of Online Sports Betting to the strategic nuances of Online Poker and the vibrant community of Online Bingo.

As we venture deeper into this guide, let this pivotal moment in Ontario’s regulatory history be a beacon, shedding light on the myriad opportunities awaiting Canadian players. With local regulations setting a gold standard, players can now embrace their gaming passions with heightened assurance and excitement.

How do we rank the Best Online Gambling Sites in Canada?

For the last 10+ years, our editor team has kept a close eye on the online gambling market, reviewing both existing and new gambling operators on the market both on monthly basis and ultimately the end of each year. So far the editor team has reviewed over 70+ online casinos, sports betting sites, online bingo sites, and online poker sites. There are 8 criteria the editor team is looking at to give a fair and independent review.

• Security
  This is the number one item on our list. Over time, there have been a lot of fraudulent online gambling operators in the market, who have operated either without a gambling license or with licenses from dubious jurisdictions. Upon reviewing either an online casino or sports betting site, our first effort goes to check the valid license the brand is operating under.
  
  
• Customer Support
  If you ever need any sort of help with your casino- or betting account you always want to be a few clicks away from live-chat support that can directly give you the support and answers that you need. All our recommended Canadian online casinos and sports betting sites offer live chat support, as well e-mail and via phone. This will assure you that in any event, you need help, you will receive it instantly. Reaching out to the support team is also a great way to get advice about the product offer, the payment methods, and overall brand information.
  
  
• Game Content
  When playing at an online gambling site, for example an online casino, you want to have a wide range of casino offering of the most popular casino games – blackjack, roulette, craps, keno, video poker, baccarat as well have a great live casino offering. Some of the top casino providers in Canada are NetEnt, Red Tiger, Evolution, IGT, iSoftBet, Novomatic, PlayNGO, QuickSpin, Big Time Gaming, Bally, PragmaticPlay, and many more.
  
  
• Promotions & Bonuses
  Everyone loves a “free lunch”, same goes for when gambling online therefore our editor team always keeps a close eye on the best online gambling promotions. For an online gamblings site to be top-ranked, it needs to offer a great Welcome Bonus to all new depositing customers, ongoing promotions, a great VIP program, casino tournaments, enhanced odds, and more. Pleasing to see that for the best online casinos in Canada – and Canadian Sportsbooks – there are great ongoing promotions and attractive Welcome Bonuses!
  
  
• Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
  When gambling online, regardless if it is Casino, Poker or Sports – the Canadian bettors want to be able to have a wide offering of banking methods for their deposits and withdrawals. All transactions should be done in a secure enviroment and also with quick processing, both in and out of the gambling site. On all the recommended sites you will be able to play in Canadian Dollar, which allows you not to lose out on any currency conversions. Some of the most popular for Online Gambling in Canada are:
  
  VISA, MasterCard, PaysafeCard, American Express, PayPal, Neteller, ecoCard & ecoPayz, Interac Online, Instabet & Bank Transfer.
  
  
• Jackpots
  “Bet small, win big!” – that is one of the exciting elements of playing online casinos that offer great jackpots. The big casino jackpots are built up over weeks and months, by jackpot contributions paid by all the casino operators who offer the specific casino jackpot. Some of the most popular casino jackpots are Mega Moolah ($22.4 Million payout in September 2018), Mega Fortune ($24 Million payout i 2013, winner from Finland betting $0,25c a spin) and Arabian Knights ($17,3 Million payout in 2011). All the top online gambling sites listed on OnlineGamblingCanada.com offer big progressive jackpots which can be won with the minimum bet.

FAQ on Canadian Online Gambling

• Is online gambling legal in Canada?
  Yes! Pleased to say, that you can play all your favorite gaming products online safe and legal. Ontario was the first province in Canada to locally regulate gambling, and it is expected that the other provinces will follow over the coming years to locally control and set the rules for online gambling within the province. Right now most online casinos and betting sites are offering their products to Canadians via the global availible gambling licenses.
  
  One big change in the Canadian Sports Betting laws took place in June 2021 when betting on single events became fully legal in Canada. The law was approved under Bill C-218 (The Safe & Regulated Sportsbetting Act) which was both approved by the House and also the Senate and went into effect in June. This new law gave all the provinces the authority to create their own regulatory framework for singe game wagering.
  
  
• What are the Paybacks/Payouts/RTP in Canadian Online Casinos & Sportsbooks?
  When it comes to Sportsbooks the normal range of payout would hoover around 95-98% depending on the sport and the leauges. Looking at the most popular sports such as Basketball (NBA), Hockey (NHL) and Football (NFL), here you will most likely see the highest range of the payout as these are the top professionals in the sports which will rarely see upsets over the full season. Also, as these are the most popular leauges and sports, the different sportsbooks drives up the odds in competition to attract new bettors.
  
  Looking at online casinos, the paybacks (RTP – Return to Player) can range as high as 99%. In simplified form – for every 1 CAD spent on a casino slot, 0,99c CAD is paid back to the players. Online slots is the casino game that has the highest RTP, after that European Roulette is following at 97.3% and after that the classic American Roulette at 94.7%. The lower the RTP, the more volatitlity meaning that although the players will win less frequent, when they win the winnings are normally higher.
  
  
• What is a Welcome Bonus and how is it converted?
  The Welcome Bonus is given to new customers signing up for the gambling site. Normally you will find a match bonus of 100%, meaning that the gambling website will match your first deposit up to a certain amount, often capped at ca C$1,000. The way the Welcome Bonus is normally converted is by “turnover” regardless what gambling product you are playing. If you are betting on sports normally the sportsbook would require you to turn over the bonus 5-10 times, within 30 days on bets that has a minumum of -200 in odds (single game). Similiar you would see in online casino, however the turnover requirements are ranging somewhere between 25-35 times the bonus amount, as playing slots will drive the turnover much faster than betting on sports. Most of the times you will see that the bonus in an online casino will be paid out in batches when you hit certain turnover, in portions of C$10, which will continously fill up your casino balance.
  
  Other popular bonuses are: First Bet Match bonus – which simple doubles your first best in the sportsbook, Reload Bonus – which gives you an opportunity to fill up your gambling account with a ad hoc bonus offer, Refer-a-Friend – popular one that gives you a bonus when refering some of your friends to the sportsbook or online casino, Cashback – which is mainly for VIP-bettors and offered on a individual level. In short this bonus form gives you a percentage back of your losses within a certain period of time often around 10-20%, Free Bets – the Sportsbook would from time to time assign you a “on the house” bet which allows you to bet without risk and the winnings you will keep in your account.
  
  
• What online gambling site handles withdrawals the quickest?
  From our user testing, the conclusion is for online casino that Jackpot City is the quickest with their withdrawals, tightly followed by 888Casino. For sportsbetting the quickest withdrawals came from 888Sport & Unibet.
  
  
• Do I need to pay taxes on my online gambling winnings?
  In short; no if you gamble online and win money using repuatable online gambling sites, then you don´t need to pay any taxes. The only two exceptions to this is A) if you are earning interest on your winnings at the online casino or sportsbook (e.g. if the online casino would pay you interest on your casino balance – does not happen!) or B) if your only income comes from gambling, and it is a substanstial amount of money, than potentially it can be considered as work and if so you would then the winnings would be taxed as income (highly unlikely).
  
  
• What is the legal gambling age in Canada?
  To be able to gamble online or offline in Canada you will need to be at least 18 years or other set legal age set by the province.
  

Online Gambling in Provinces

Read the latest about the latest laws and rules for online gambling & gambling at casinos per province.