How to

How to check if a casino is on the iGaming Ontario list

This takes about two minutes and it is the single most useful check an Ontario player can run. The register is public, it is authoritative, and it settles the question that no amount of homepage badging can.

Check the official register Read the Ontario guide

Affiliate disclosure: This is an independent comparison site. We may earn a commission if a reader registers through our links. We do not operate casinos and we do not hold player funds. Operator links are marked rel="nofollow sponsored". Nothing on this page is advice to gamble.

No operator links appear on this page. The point of the page is to send you to the register, not to a casino.

Step by step

Checking the register in five steps

Type the address yourself. Go to igamingontario.ca directly rather than following a link from the casino you are checking, and open the iGaming Ontario register of regulated operators.
Search the exact brand name. Use the name as it appears in the site’s own header, not a shortened version. Brands with several regional sites can appear under a name you do not expect.
Read the operator entry, not just the brand. The register lists the operator behind the brand. One operator can run several registered brands, and a brand you recognise may belong to a different company than you assume.
Cross-check the AGCO registrant information. The AGCO publishes its own registrant records. If the operator appears in both, you have two independent confirmations.
Match the domain. Registration attaches to the operator’s Ontario site. Confirm that the exact domain you are on is the one the operator itself lists, character for character.

If the brand is not on the current register, it is not part of Ontario’s regulated market. That is the whole answer, whatever the site says about being licensed and regulated somewhere.

Clone sites

How to tell a licensed casino from a clone site

Clone sites copy a real brand’s look onto a domain the brand does not own, and they are usually found through advertisements and unsolicited messages rather than by searching for the brand. Warning signs, roughly in order of how reliable they are:

The licence seal is not clickable, or it links to an image or a page on the casino’s own domain instead of the regulator’s site.
The domain is slightly wrong — an added word, a hyphen, a different ending, a lookalike character.
The licensed entity named in the footer does not match the brand, or is not named at all.
No identity verification is mentioned anywhere, or support says none is needed to withdraw.
Pressure tactics: countdown timers, expiring offers, urgency to deposit. A licensed operator advertising into Canada is constrained in how it can market to you.
No working support channel, or support that only exists on a messaging app.
Payment instructions to a personal account or to cryptocurrency at a merchant that claims Interac.

If you find a clone using a brand you were looking for, the brand’s real site and the register will both contradict it. Do not enter identity or payment details to “test” a site.

Elsewhere in Canada

If you are not in Ontario

There is no equivalent private-operator register in most other provinces, so the check is different: read the operator’s licence statement, open the certificate, and confirm it with the regulator directly. Our Kahnawake guide walks through that, and the legal by province guide covers what each province actually offers.

Questions

Register and verification questions

How do I check if a casino is on the iGaming Ontario list?

Type igamingontario.ca yourself, open the register of regulated operators, and search the brand exactly as it appears in the site’s header. Read the operator entry behind the brand, cross-check the AGCO registrant information, and confirm the exact domain.

Does a licence badge on a casino homepage prove anything?

On its own, no. A genuine seal links to a page hosted by the regulator. A badge that is an image, or that links to a page on the casino’s own domain, proves nothing at all.

How can I tell a licensed casino from a clone site?

Check whether the licence seal links to the regulator, whether the domain is exactly right, whether the licensed entity in the footer matches the brand, and whether identity verification is mentioned at all. Clone sites usually arrive via advertisements or unsolicited messages and lean on urgency.

What if the casino is not on the register?

Then it is not part of Ontario’s regulated market. It may hold a licence elsewhere, which is a different thing: no Ontario player protections, no provincial complaint escalation and no Ontario self-exclusion coverage.

Play responsibly.

Gambling can cause harm. Online casino play is adult entertainment with a real risk of losing money — it is not a way to make money, pay bills or solve a financial problem. Set deposit, loss and time limits before you play.

Free, confidential help, 24/7: ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600 or connexontario.ca — 24/7, free and confidential. More resources and provincial helplines on our responsible gambling page.