On April 4, 2024, Ontario celebrated the second anniversary of regulated online gambling, launched in cooperation with AGCO and iGaming Ontario. To analyze trends and tendencies that marked the first two years of the market, The Commission conducted a study in cooperation with Ipsos, a global leader in market research and public opinion.
One of the most notable findings has to do with player’s preferences, with regard to which type of platforms they prefer to access. More precisely, the survey showed that a predominant number of Ontarian players, namely more than 86% of them choose regulated instead of unlicensed gambling platforms.
Regulated Casinos Lead the Way
Based on the figures revealed from the Ipsos study conducted in February 2024, 86.4% of players from Ontario gambled on regulated iGaming websites. The survey, which encompasses the period of the preceding three months, shows an 85.3% increase in gambling on licensed online casinos compared to a similar analysis done in 2023.
Dr. Karin Schnarr, Chief Executive Officer and Registrar, AGCO, commented on the stats as follows:
“In Ontario, regulated sites are held to high standards of game integrity, data security, and player protections, including having significant responsible gaming safeguards. While it’s encouraging to see most participants are choosing regulated gaming options, those who are not are unfortunately risking far more than their wagers.”
Unlicensed Casinos Still Target the Market
While the stats indicate that players are aware of the importance of gambling responsibly and on regulated websites only, a solid number of consumers are still accessing illegal gambling websites.
During the same period, slightly over 20% of people who gambled online accessed both regulated and unregulated gambling platforms, whereas almost 14% of players visited unlicensed sites only.
On top of that, players who took part in the survey could name over 350 unregulated betting websites, which revealed that weak points in the local gambling system exist and need to be addressed. For that reason, regulators are putting continuous efforts to navigate players to safer and regulated gambling websites.
As for the gambling habits of residents of the most populous province in Canada, 35.2% of consumers have gambled online in the past year, whereas 29.5% of individuals have gambled online in the past three months. 20.3% of Ontarians have played online casino games in the past month.
Regarding the age, the hugest share occupies the group between 35-54, with 42.5% gamblers. The percentage of people between 19-34 who gamble amounts to 38.7%, whereas the share which belongs to consumers above 55 amounts to 18.8%.
Continuous Growth
Since the market was launched in April 2022, Ontario welcomed a large number of operators. To date, 47 operators acquired the license from AGCO and iGaming Ontario, getting permission to operate 77 regulated sites in the province.
Some of the providers greenlighted to offer games to local audiences include Booming Games, Peter & Sons, Hacksaw Gaming, Kalamba Games, Push Gaming, and many more.
Striving to maintain as safe and secure an environment as possible, local regulator occasionally penalizes operators that act against the guidelines. In November 2023 PointsBet Canada was ordered to pay CA$150,000 for responsible gaming breaches, whereas a bit over a month after the market went live two operators were served monetary penalties.
Source:
“Over 86% of Ontario’s online gamblers play on regulated sites: Study”, agco.ca, April 4, 2024.