How to Verify an Online Casino Licence in Canada

A licence claim is marketing until you verify it on the regulator's own website. In Canada, that check takes two minutes.

The verification path

• Identify the claim: the casino's footer names its regulator and licence. No named regulator = walk away.
• Go to the regulator directly — type the address; never use the badge link on the casino's own page as your proof.
• For Ontario players: AGCO maintains a public register of licensed operators, and iGaming Ontario lists its contracted operators. An "Ontario licensed" casino missing from those lists is lying.
• For provincial platforms: the province's Crown corporation (BCLC's PlayNow in BC, Loto-Québec in Québec, and equivalents elsewhere) is itself the authorization — verify you are on the Crown corporation's real domain.

Claims that do not equal Canadian regulation

• Offshore licences (Curaçao, Malta and similar) can be real licences somewhere — but they are not Canadian regulation and give a Canadian player no provincial protection or dispute route.
• The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is a long-standing licensing body based in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke; whatever its merits, a Kahnawake licence is not provincial authorization to serve players in BC or Ontario's regulated market.
• "Certified fair" seals from testing labs address game math, not licensing. Both matter; they are not interchangeable.

Why bother

Licensed-in-your-province means enforced identity checks, segregated complaint routes, advertised-terms enforcement and self-exclusion that actually spans the system. Offshore means hoping a chat agent feels generous.

Verified 2026-08-07. Sources: agco.ca · igamingontario.ca · bclc.com · gcgc-kahnawake: gamingcommission.ca