How to get a gambling licence in Ontario: fees and steps

Ontario is the model open market. An operator needs two things in parallel: registration with the AGCO, and a commercial operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

• The AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) is the regulator. It registers operators and suppliers, sets the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming, and enforces them. Applications run through the AGCO’s online portal, iAGCO.
• iGaming Ontario (iGO) is a separate government agency that conducts and manages the market. It signs the operating agreement with each registered operator, so the operator provides its site as iGO’s commercial partner. Registration alone does not let you go live; you also need the iGO agreement.
• Three registration categories exist: internet gaming operator (the B2C site), gaming-related supplier (platforms, game studios, live-dealer and testing suppliers that touch the gaming) and non-gaming-related supplier (support services that do not).
• The operator registration and the iGO operating agreement are distinct instruments issued by two different bodies. Both are required, and both are ongoing obligations.

Laws that apply

• Gaming Control Act, 1992, SO 1992, c. 24
• iGaming Ontario Act, 2024, SO 2024, c. 20, Sched. 9
• Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act, 2019, SO 2019, c. 15, Sched. 1
• Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming

The AGCO assesses whether the applicant and its key people are honest, financially responsible and of good character, then charges a fixed annual registration fee per site.

• Applicants disclose ownership and control. Personal disclosure is required from sole proprietors, partners, officers, directors, shareholders holding 5% or more, and principal employees; entity disclosure is required from corporations and trusts holding 5% or more. Non-resident individuals provide criminal-record checks.
• The Registrar assesses financial responsibility, integrity and honesty, and past conduct. Applicants file financial statements and tax records, and every statement in the application is subject to verification.
• Players must be 19 or older in Ontario (the provincial age of majority for gambling).
• Fees are set by the AGCO fee schedule and are non-refundable. The Registrar may also require the applicant to pay the reasonable costs of an investigation on top of the registration fee.

The real cost of doing business is not a tax; it is the share of gaming revenue the operator pays iGaming Ontario under the operating agreement.

• Under the operating agreement, the operator accepts bets as agent for iGaming Ontario. In its published financial statements iGO states that it remits 80% of the gaming revenue deposited back to each gaming operator as variable compensation, and retains the remaining 20%.
• In operator terms: iGaming Ontario keeps 20% of gaming revenue, and the operator keeps 80% (after eligible deductions defined in the agreement). This is the standing levy of the Ontario model.
• This 20% share is set by the commercial operating agreement, not by a gambling tax statute. It is uniform in the sense that iGO reports a single 80% remittance rate across operators; the full commercial terms of the agreement are not all public.
• The share replaces a gambling-specific operator tax. Ontario does not levy a separate igaming duty on top of it (see section 10).

Before launch the operator must show it meets the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming, have its platform and games tested by an accredited lab, and integrate responsible-gambling and self-exclusion tooling.

• The AGCO enforces the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming, an outcomes-based rulebook covering integrity, player protection, responsible gambling, technical requirements and social responsibility.
• The operator files a gap analysis showing how it meets each standard, and submits an independently audited control activity matrix, before launch for elevated-risk operators or within three months of launch otherwise. An independent system and security assessment is required before launch and annually thereafter.
• Games, the random number generator, and the platform must be tested and certified by an AGCO-registered independent testing laboratory against the technical standards. Testing labs are themselves gaming-related suppliers.
• Player-protection duties: age and identity verification, visible responsible-gambling information, deposit and time limits, time-out breaks (one day to three months) and self-exclusion. Ontario’s minimum gambling age is 19. Do not carry that number into Alberta: the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act sets 18 for iGaming there (s. 49.3(1) bars a minor from an iGaming site, and s. 1(1)(w) defines a minor as under 18). The 19 that circulates for Alberta is its liquor and cannabis age, not its gambling age.
• Game design is constrained, not just certified. Standard 2.16 requirement 2 bars auto-play on slots. Standard 2.18 sets a minimum game cycle of 2.5 seconds. Standard 2.19 bars any feature that lets a player shorten the time to the result: turbo, quick spin and slam stop are named explicitly. Standard 2.17 bars split-screen and simultaneous multi-slot play, and Standard 2.20 bars celebratory presentation of a result that returns less than the stake. These are live obligations, not guidance: the AGCO issued a $70,000 penalty against Booming Games (Malta) on 20 August 2026 for a prohibited auto-play feature, citing Standard 2.16 requirement 2.
• Centralized self-exclusion is mandatory. Standard 2.14.1, added by AGCO bulletin on 2 April 2026 and in force 14 May 2026, requires every registered operator to participate in BetGuard, Ontario’s central self-exclusion service. An operator-level programme under Standard 2.14 is still required as well, so both have to be built and kept in step.

The compliance layer with the longest build and procurement lead time, and the one most often discovered late. Ontario sets these duties in the Registrar’s Standards rather than in statute, and it states the required outcome without naming a technology.

• Identity is verified before the account exists. Standard 3.04 requires name, date of birth, address, a method of identification for subsequent log-on, contact details and the information required under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to be gathered at registration, and to be “demonstrated to be complete, accurate and validated before a player account is created”. There is no deposit-now-verify-later window in Ontario.
• How you verify is not prescribed. No standard names an identity document, a credit file, a database or a vendor: the duty is the outcome, and the operator must be able to evidence to the Registrar how its controls achieve it. Standard 3.05 adds a player attestation that the information is complete and accurate, and Standard 3.07 a fitness-to-play affirmation each session.
• The age is 19, and it binds online because of one definition. Gaming Control Act, 1992 s. 2(3) and 2(4) bar anyone under 19 from entering a gaming site or playing a lottery scheme in one, and s. 1(1) defines a gaming site as premises “or an electronic channel” maintained for that purpose. Standard 3.01 requirement 1 carries the one exception: an 18-year-old may access a gaming site solely to buy a lottery ticket.
• Two self-exclusion screens, and one of them must fail closed. Standard 2.14.1 requirement 5 bars a centrally self-excluded person from creating or accessing an account; the registry SLAs are tight, additions within one hour of registration, marketing suppression and wager cancellation or refund within 24 hours, log-out immediately, and requirement 12 obliges the operator to manage disruptions affecting its ability to perform checks, which is a fail-closed design requirement rather than an API call. The operator’s own programme under Standard 2.14 runs alongside it, and Standard 3.03 requires the whole registered book to be re-verified whenever the prohibited-and-excluded list changes, so a batch re-screen job is needed too.
• Play must be inside Ontario, monitored continuously. Standard 3.02 permits games to be provided only within Ontario unless conducted jointly with another province. Requirement 1 obliges the operator to detect and dynamically monitor the location of a player attempting to play, to block unverified attempts, and to re-check during the session “at reasonable intervals determined by the Operator”: the interval is deliberately not specified, so it is the operator’s risk judgement to justify. Requirement 2 adds a duty to detect software, virtualisation and other tools capable of circumventing location detection.
• One account per site, authenticated, with verified withdrawals. Standard 3.09 limits a player to one account per gaming site (per site, not market-wide) and 3.08 requires accounts to be uniquely identifiable. Standard 3.12 requires authentication before account access and obliges the operator to offer multi-factor authentication, without mandating its use. Standard 5.70 requires withdrawals to go to an account the player legally holds, and 5.69 states that cryptocurrency is not legal tender and shall not be accepted.

The route to a live Ontario operation, in build order. Registration and the iGaming Ontario commercial onboarding run on separate tracks and both must complete; start the standards gap analysis before you file, because it is part of the application rather than something that follows it.

1. 01

   Run the Registrar’s Standards gap analysis

   AGCO application requirement

   The AGCO asks for a gap analysis against the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming as part of the operator application, so this is the first build task rather than a later compliance exercise. It also tells you how much of the technical work below is already done.

2. 02

   File the AGCO registration, per gaming site

   Gaming Control Act, 1992

   One application per gaming site at CAD 100,000 per site per year, with a one or two-year term at the applicant’s election and fees payable to match. Personal and entity disclosure is required from directors, officers, partners, trustees and principal employees, and from shareholders holding 5% or more. iGO states its own step takes 2+ months from a complete submission.

3. 03

   Complete iGaming Ontario commercial onboarding

   iGO operating agreement

   Seven further steps on iGO’s side: a non-disclosure agreement, a letter of agreement, secure data channels, anti-money-laundering submissions, financial submissions, a systems and data readiness cycle, and then execution. Registration alone does not let you operate.

4. 04

   Certify and pass the go-live technical gate

   Technology Compliance Confirmation

   A Technology Compliance Confirmation signed by the CEO and Chief Compliance Officer, with independent security vulnerability assessment results, internal and external penetration testing of Ontario production infrastructure, and current SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification for any third-party data centre or cloud provider.

5. 05

   Join the Centralized Self-Exclusion Program

   Standard 2.14.1

   BetGuard went live on 14 May 2026 and participation is mandatory for every registered operator. Run your own site-level programme under Standard 2.14 alongside it, with 6-month, 1-year and 5-year terms, plus shorter breaks in play under 2.13.

6. 06

   Operate under a regulator that can fine you

   AGCO Act s. 14

   Unlike Alberta, Ontario publishes a monetary-penalty schedule (up to CAD 200,000 for operators and CAD 100,000 for suppliers) and uses it, including a CAD 70,000 penalty against Booming Games in August 2026 for a prohibited auto-play feature. Budget compliance accordingly.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 11 Sep 2026.