Canada’s iGaming market entering a new growth phase with new licenses and online casino roll-out

Canada's regulated online gambling market did grow between 2023 and 2025. Total wagers increased from around CAD 63000 million to nearly CAD 82700 million from 2023 to 2025. Gross gaming revenue was CAD 3.2 billion.

This article is based on official market reporting and industry data and summarizes who came into the market, what changes in licensing occurred, and where player engagement was most active.

New Licensing Wave Signs Market Shift

New licensing agreements are changing how companies enter Canada. In January 2025, BetConstruct received a license from the Tobique First Nation, empowering an affiliate to offer both B2B and B2C licenses in that territory. This decision offers an alternative to provincial approvals and a reduced dependency on offshore operators.

Others are watching to see if other Indigenous Authorities take the same approach. There has been a continuous upward trend in recognized operators and annual wagering totals since the regulated market was opened in April 2022, according to iGaming Ontario.

Providers Get Licenses and Customers First

As per Ontario iGaming, total wagers increased from CAD 63 billion from 2023-2024 to CAD 82.7 billion in just 2024-2025.

This increase was due to an increase in accounts as well as an increase in wagering. In recent years, provisional filings reported about 49 licensed operators. This increase in operators led to more options and increased competition in the Product and Promotions market.

Revenue from Online Casino Growth

As per iGaming Ontario, Casino products hold the largest market share, with 80% of online wagers being invested in slots and games at the live dealer tables. This increase in bet concentration brought the gross gaming revenue to CAD 3.2 billion in 2024-2025.

Casino games have contributed the largest share of total revenue due to the value in scheduled engagement of the games, as well as the large selection of games available digitally.

Player Activity Reaches All-Time Highs

As of September 2025, Ontario surpassed CAD 8.55 billion in wagers, making September after August a record month and a record month in the more than 8.5 billion. According to a report from iGaming Ontario, active player accounts increased to 1.2 million for the month.

These numbers further confirm that the regulated market is now able to sustain high-volume activity, as opposed to the previous short-lived volume spikes experienced from the market. Additionally, the average revenue per account is said to have varied from month to month, an indicator that more accounts were being created at different spending levels.

Impact on Operators and Regulators

With every quickly growing market comes the increased complexities of operations and, in this case, the impact on regulation. Operators, in this case, will have to deal with increased levels of payment processing, enhanced levels of customer support, increased volume of fraud monitoring, and, of course, increased levels of anti-money laundering traffic.

Regulators will have to deal with independent testing, oversight of the burgeoning number of applicant licensees, and administration of consumer protections. The unique combination of provincial regulation with Indigenous-authorized systems results in additional complications from a taxation and enforcement perspective.

This, in turn, increases the need for standardized reporting, coordination of data collection, and facilitation of cross-border regulatory cooperation.

Potential Future Trends In The Market

The national market stands to expand rapidly should more provinces embrace open licensing frameworks, and/or additional Indigenous jurisdictions provide authorization pathways. Market entrants with local licenses will likely alter user expectations with the introduction of varied payment methods, loyalty programs, and the introduction of new game formats.

These developments will lead to concerns around revenue distribution and the allocation of funds for gambling harm mitigation, along with costs for the enforcement of cross-jurisdictional control. Legislators will have to make decisions regarding the balance of rule harmonization versus enforcement discretion for varying jurisdictions.

What Lies Ahead

Canada's iGaming sector was able to transition from the beginning stages of development to the scaled phase in only a few years. The growth in the number of accounts placed bets, and the revenues indicates that the regulated platforms capture a large share of the online gambling activity.

Officially reported market data indicates that greater scale in the online gambling market is captured, the more transparent the market becomes, and the more regulatory authorities place consumer protection, along with regulatory compliance costs, on gambling operators. Reporting compliance will remain a priority for regulatory authorities. The fairness and age access compliance of operators will be reported through independent compliance audits.

The industry and consumer advocates should push for transparency on the measures taken to protect vulnerable players and the measures taken to mitigate the negative impact of gambling.

Operators can advance those objectives by developing and providing tools that monitor and systems that are easy to interact with, and that offer support on self-exclusion and gambling self-restraint. The equilibrium between growth and the protection measures will shape the market to produce a public good for the foreseeable future.

Source: https://zamsino.com/ca/free-spins-no-deposit/