Is online gambling legal in Canada? Province by province

Gambling law in Canada is split between the federal government and the provinces. The Criminal Code makes it an offence to keep a gaming house or run gambling, then sets out exceptions. The most important is section 207(1)(a): the government of a province, alone or with other provinces, may conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province under its own laws. In the Code, "lottery scheme" is broad enough to cover casino games as well as lottery tickets.

The Code also says games operated on or through a computer or video device fall outside what charities, fairs and other licensees may run. In practice, that leaves online casino games to the provinces themselves.

Single-event sports betting follows the same rule. Since 27 August 2021, when the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act came into force, provinces have been able to offer bets on a single game or event, not only parlays.

Each province then chooses its own model. In the provinces this guide covers, the provincial lottery corporation runs the province's online casino, and no private online casino is licensed by the province. Two provinces took a different route: Ontario and Alberta run their own regulated markets, where registered private operators can offer online casino games. Casino Reach isn't available in either province.

Ages and operators come from each provincial site or government page, and helplines from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and Nova Scotia Health. Sources are listed at the end of this page.

British Columbia. The BC government says PlayNow.com is the only legal online gambling site in the province. The British Columbia Lottery Corporation runs it, and the Independent Gambling Control Office regulates gambling in BC. You must be 19 or older. Help: Problem Gambling Help Line, 1-888-795-6111.

Saskatchewan. PlayNow Saskatchewan is operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority. You must be 19 or older. Help: Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-306-6789.

Manitoba. PlayNow Manitoba is operated by Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, and the minimum age is 18. In May 2025, at Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries' request, the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba ruled that an offshore operator had no lawful authority to offer online gambling in Manitoba and ordered it to block players there. Help: Addictions Help Line, Problem Gambling, 1-800-463-1554.

Loto-Québec runs the province's online casino and sports betting site, and says its website is the only legal casino website in Québec. It also has its own app in the App Store and Google Play. The minimum age is 18. Help: Jeu : aide et référence, 1-800-461-0140.

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador share one government lottery corporation, Atlantic Lottery. It offers lottery, sports betting and casino games online and in its app, which describes it as Atlantic Canada's only government-regulated lottery and gaming provider. You must be 19 or older. Which games are on offer can vary from one province to another.

• New Brunswick: Gambling Information Line, 1-800-461-1234.
• Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia Health's Mental Health and Addictions Intake, 1-855-922-1122, weekdays, with evening hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Prince Edward Island: Problem Gambling Help Line, 1-855-255-4255.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: Problem Gambling Help Line, 1-888-899-4357.

We found no government-run online casino in any of the three territories when we checked in October 2026. Lottery tickets there come through the Western Canada Lottery Corporation; in Yukon, Lotteries Yukon sells them as agent for the Yukon government and the corporation. Because there's no territorial online casino, we couldn't find an official minimum age for online play, so Casino Reach uses 19+ in the territories.

• Yukon: Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services, 1-866-456-3838.
• Northwest Territories: General Help Line, 1-800-661-0844.
• Nunavut: Kamatsiaqtut Help Line, 1-800-265-3333.

Provincial gambling sites serve players in their own province, and their apps are built to work only there. Apple, for example, requires real-money gaming apps to be geo-restricted to the places where they hold the licences and permissions they need. PlayNow's app says it operates only for players in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and Atlantic Lottery's app is for players in the four Atlantic provinces. If you travel or move, the rules of the province you're in apply, and you may need to use that province's site instead.

Offshore casinos are sites your province doesn't run or authorize. They usually hold a licence from a regulator outside the provincial systems.

The Criminal Code's gambling offences are aimed mainly at people who keep or run gambling operations. It also makes it an offence to be found in a common gaming house without lawful excuse. The Code doesn't say plainly how these rules apply to someone at home playing on a site based outside Canada, and we don't offer a view either way.

Provinces have stated their own position. BC's government and Loto-Québec each describe their site as the only legal one in their province, and in 2025 a Manitoba court ruled that an offshore operator had no lawful authority to offer online gambling there.

Some things are clear in practice. If you play on an offshore site:

• Your province's regulator won't take up a complaint about it. Disputes go to the regulator or dispute service named in the site's own terms.
• Self-exclusion with your provincial lottery corporation covers its own sites, not offshore ones, so you'd need to self-exclude with each site separately.
• The protections you get depend on the site's own regulator and terms.

If you need advice about your own situation, ask a lawyer.

Usually not. The Canada Revenue Agency's income tax folio on lottery winnings says the amount or value of a prize won in a lottery scheme isn't taxable (paragraph 1.16). Gambling gains are taxed only when the gambling amounts to a business, and the CRA says gambling is not generally treated as a commercial activity except in very exceptional circumstances (paragraphs 1.12 to 1.15). Whether someone is in the business of gambling depends on all the facts, such as how organized it is, any special knowledge, whether the aim is profit or pleasure, and how often and how much they bet.

This isn't tax advice. Ask a tax professional about your own situation.

1. Start with the province or territory you're in, then find its government site in the table above.
2. Check the minimum age: 19, or 18 in Manitoba and Quebec.
3. For any other site, find its licence number in the footer and look it up on that regulator's own register.
4. Before you deposit anywhere, set a deposit limit and find the self-exclusion option in your account.
5. Keep your provincial helpline to hand. They're all in the table above and on our gambling help page.