Is Sports Betting Legal in Canada?

What changed in 2021

Gambling is a crime in Canada unless the Criminal Code allows it. Section 207 makes it lawful “for the government of a province … to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province … in accordance with any law enacted by the legislature of that province.”

Before 2021, that section kept betting on a single sport event out of provincial hands.

Bill C-218 changed one paragraph. The Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act replaced paragraph 207(4)(b). The Act’s official summary says it makes it lawful for a province, or a company licensed by the province, “to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in the province that involves betting on a race — other than a horse-race — or fight, or on a single sport event or athletic contest.” Today’s paragraph 207(4)(b) only excludes bets “on any horse-race.”

The timeline

Date	What happened	Official source
April 22, 2021	House of Commons passed Bill C-218 at third reading	LEGISinfo
June 22, 2021	Senate passed it at third reading	LEGISinfo
June 29, 2021	Royal assent, as Statutes of Canada 2021, chapter 20	LEGISinfo
August 11, 2021	Cabinet made Order in Council P.C. 2021-0874, fixing the start date	P.C. 2021-0874
August 27, 2021	The Act came into force. Single-game betting became legal	P.C. 2021-0874

C-218 was a private member’s bill, sponsored by Kevin Waugh, MP for Saskatoon—Grasswood. The Act itself said it would start “on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.” That is why the start date (August 27) is later than royal assent (June 29).

Who offers single-game betting in each province

The law lets each province decide how to offer sports betting. In most provinces there is one legal option, the government’s own. We checked each provider’s official site on September 30, 2026.

Province or territory	Legal online option	In store	Private sportsbooks allowed?	Minimum age
Ontario	OLG’s PROLINE+ and private sites registered by the AGCO and contracted by iGaming Ontario	OLG PROLINE at lottery retailers; sportsbooks at some casinos	Yes, only those on iGaming Ontario’s list	19 online; 18 for in-store sports betting
Quebec	Loto-Québec’s Mise-o-jeu+	Loto-Québec’s Mise-o-jeu	No	18
British Columbia	PlayNow.com (BCLC)	Not covered by the sources we checked	No	19
Alberta	Private sites registered with AGLC and listed by AiGC (Play Alberta, the province’s own platform, also still operates)	WCLC lottery retailers (Sport Select)	Yes, only those on the official lists (market opened July 13, 2026)	18
Saskatchewan	PlayNow.com, run by SIGA	WCLC lottery retailers (Sport Select)	No	19 online; 18 for WCLC lottery products
Manitoba	PlayNow.com (Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries)	WCLC lottery retailers (Sport Select)	No	18
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador	Atlantic Lottery’s alc.ca	Atlantic Lottery	No	19
Northwest Territories, Nunavut	See below	WCLC Sport Select (the only sports betting product NT & NU Lotteries offers)	No	18 (WCLC policy for lottery tickets)
Yukon	See below	Lotteries Yukon (a WCLC associate member)	No	Check Lotteries Yukon

“WCLC” is the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. It runs lottery games for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut take part as associate members (WCLC). On sportselect.com you can build a Sport Select slip and generate a code, but the ticket itself is bought from a retailer.

Ontario

The AGCO says companies that want to offer sport and event betting in Ontario “must be registered with the AGCO and be conducted and managed by either iGaming Ontario (iGO) or the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG)” (AGCO). It lists four legal ways to bet:

• Private online sites on iGaming Ontario’s list. Since April 4, 2022, operators that finished AGCO registration and signed an iGO operating agreement can take bets (AGCO).
• OLG PROLINE+, online on your own device.
• OLG PROLINE, in person at a registered lottery retailer.
• Sportsbooks at some casinos.

Age: OLG says you must be 18 or older for “lottery, charitable gaming and in-store sports betting,” and 19 or older “to participate in online casino gaming and online sports betting” (OLG.ca). iGaming Ontario says you must be 19 for all the internet gaming it runs, and you cannot place a bet unless you are physically in Ontario (iGO FAQs). More detail is in our guide, Is online gambling legal in Ontario?

Alberta

Alberta’s regulated online market opened on July 13, 2026, with 22 registered iGaming sites approved at launch (AiGC). According to AiGC, approved sites offer “comprehensive sports betting markets,” and Play Alberta keeps running as the province’s own platform alongside private operators (AiGC FAQs). You must be 18 or older, and you must be physically in Alberta to log in or bet (AiGC FAQs). See Is online gambling legal in Alberta?

Quebec

Loto-Québec runs sports betting in Quebec. Its corporate site lists Mise-o-jeu in store and Mise-o-jeu+ online, and shows the required age as 18+ (Loto-Québec). Bets are placed through Espacejeux, Loto-Québec’s online gaming site (Mise-o-jeu). Loto-Québec calls lotoquebec.com the only legal gaming website in Québec; see our Quebec guide.

British Columbia

The B.C. government says gambling is legal “only when it’s run by the provincial government,” that “PlayNow.com is the only legal online gambling site in B.C.”, and that you must be 19 or older to gamble, including online (Gambling in B.C.). PlayNow’s sports section is run by BCLC (PlayNow Sports). See Is online gambling legal in B.C.?

Saskatchewan and Manitoba

• Saskatchewan: PlayNow.com launched on November 3, 2022 with “a full suite of sports betting options.” It is operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) and runs on BCLC’s PlayNow platform. The government’s launch release describes it as being for players “aged 19 years and older” (Government of Saskatchewan), and the current PlayNow Saskatchewan site carries a GameSense 19+ notice and the SIGA name (PlayNow SK). Oversight has changed since launch: Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan (LGS), a new commercial Crown corporation, was “established to oversee all lotteries and gaming in the province,” including online gaming (LGS). See Saskatchewan.
• Manitoba: to open a PlayNow Manitoba account you must be a Manitoba resident, 18 or older, and located in Manitoba (PlayNow Manitoba help). See Manitoba.

Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Lottery is a partnership of the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. When Newfoundland and Labrador added online games in June 2023, the provincial government called Atlantic Lottery “the only regulated provider in the region” (Government of NL). Age: 19. The alc.ca terms of service say account holders must be “at least 19 years of age” and in Atlantic Canada. See our guides for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The territories

In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, GameSense NT calls Sport Select “NT & NU Lotteries’ only sports betting platform” (GameSense NT). WCLC’s policy is that people under 18 are refused the purchase or cashing of lottery tickets (WCLC). Yukon takes part in WCLC as an associate member through Lotteries Yukon, but we did not find an official page stating which sports products it sells or its minimum age, so check with Lotteries Yukon. See Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Horse racing is handled separately

Horse racing is not part of the 2021 change. The amended Criminal Code still leaves out bets “on any horse-race” from the lottery schemes provinces may run (s. 207(4)(b)). The AGCO says: “Horse racing was exempt from Bill C-218 and is not covered by the AGCO’s regulation of sport and event betting” (AGCO).

Instead, betting on horse races goes through pari-mutuel pools (all bets go into a pool and winners share it) under section 204 of the Criminal Code. That section lets the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food make regulations for pari-mutuel betting, and requires operators to pay a share of each pool to the Receiver General.

What you can and can’t bet on

Legal single-game betting does not mean anything goes. Ontario and Alberta publish their rules on which events can be offered. The two lists are almost the same (AGCO Standard 4.34; AGLC Standards, section 4.6):

• Youth sport is off limits. The majority of participants in the event or league must be 18 or older, counted across the whole event or league.
• No Canadian minor-league bets. Both ban “bets on minor league sports in Canada, including the Canadian Hockey League (CHL).”
• Proper oversight is required. The sport must be supervised by a governing body with rules that ban betting by insiders.
• Some bet types are banned. This covers bets on events involving animal fighting or cruelty, bets on stocks, currencies and other financial markets, bets on lottery results, and bets where you could lose more than you staked.
• Alberta also bans bets on political events, such as elections and leadership contests.

In Ontario, you can bet on eSports if the event meets the AGCO’s standard. If an operator gets a report of suspicious betting, it can suspend or cancel bets on that event, but the decision must be “fair, reasonable, and made in good faith” (AGCO).

In the other provinces the government lottery corporation chooses its own betting menu. We did not find an equivalent public rulebook for each of them, so check the provider’s game rules.

Betting with friends. Section 204 of the Criminal Code exempts “a private bet between individuals not engaged in any way in the business of betting” (s. 204).

What “legal” does not cover

Many sportsbooks advertised to Canadians are not on any provincial list. Outside the options in the table above, a sportsbook has no provincial authorization. The Newfoundland and Labrador government described the online gaming sites residents could reach before Atlantic Lottery’s platform as “none of which are legal or regulated” (Government of NL). iGaming Ontario says it “has no legal relationship with unregulated igaming Operators” (iGO), so it cannot help with a dispute with one. Our guide Are offshore gambling sites legal in Canada? explains the details, and Are DraftKings and FanDuel legal in Canada? covers two well-known U.S. brands.

Are winnings taxed?

For recreational bettors, generally not. Alberta iGaming Corporation’s FAQ says “the Canada Revenue Agency does not tax recreational gaming winnings” (AiGC FAQs). See our guide to taxes on gambling winnings in Canada for the exceptions.

Practical next steps

• Find your province’s legal site in the table above. In Ontario, check a private site against iGaming Ontario’s list. In Alberta, use AiGC’s registered sites.
• Take a break if you need one. Ontario players can opt out of regulated online gambling through BetGuard, which iGaming Ontario links from its player-support page. In Alberta, AGLC’s Centralized Self-Exclusion program is honoured by every registered iGaming site (AiGC). Elsewhere, look for self-exclusion in your account on the provincial site. Our self-exclusion guide lists the programs by province, and our gambling age guide covers minimum ages for every product.
• Get help. It is free and confidential:

Province / territory	Help line	Hours
Ontario	ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600, or text CONNEX to 247247	24/7
Quebec	Jeu : aide et référence: 1-800-461-0140 (Montréal area 514-527-0140)	24/7
British Columbia	Gambling Support BC: 1-888-795-6111	24/7
Alberta	211 Alberta: dial 211 or text INFO to 211 · Addiction Helpline: 1-866-332-2322	24/7
Saskatchewan	Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Helpline: 1-800-306-6789	24 hours
Manitoba	Problem Gambling Helpline: 1-800-463-1554	24/7
New Brunswick	Addiction and mental health helpline: 1-866-355-5550	24/7
Nova Scotia	Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line: 1-888-429-8167	24/7
Prince Edward Island	PEI Gambling Support Line: 1-855-255-4255	24/7
Newfoundland and Labrador	Gambling Help Line: 811	24 hours
Yukon	CMHA Yukon Reach Out Support Line: 1-844-533-3030	2 to 10 p.m.
Northwest Territories	811 Mental Health and Wellness Support Line: dial 811 and press 1, or 1-844-259-1793	24/7
Nunavut	Kamatsiaqtut Help Line: 1-800-265-3333 (Iqaluit 979-3333)	24/7
Anywhere in Canada, in crisis	Suicide Crisis Helpline: 988	24/7

Every number above is checked against its official source in our help lines guide, which also covers services for families and debt advice.

Last reviewed September 30, 2026. This page explains what official sources say. It is not legal advice and does not recommend any operator. Rules and approved-site lists change, so check the official source linked above before you bet.