The Supreme Court of Canada has reserved judgment after hearing a challenge to Ontario’s proposed system for allowing provincially regulated online players to join peer-to-peer games and betting with participants outside Canada. The case, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, et al. v. Attorney General of Ontario, tests whether Ontario may legally conduct and manage only its portion of such an international arrangement.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner said the court would take the case under advisement. The appeal follows an Ontario Court of Appeal majority ruling that the proposed model would remain lawful under the Criminal Code.
As reported in July, the Ontario Court of Appeal had backed cross-border gaming pools, subject to iGaming Ontario continuing to conduct and manage the Ontario side of the system.
The dispute centres on section 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, which permits a provincial government to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province. The Supreme Court’s case summary frames the question as whether online gaming and sports betting remain lawful when participants play with individuals outside Canada.
Ontario’s proposal would let players in the province access peer-to-peer games through provincially regulated sites, while foreign players would use sites regulated in their own jurisdictions. Players elsewhere in Canada would remain excluded unless Ontario and their province reached an agreement. Ontario says iGaming Ontario would retain authority over the experience of Ontario-based players, with contracts and regulatory arrangements governing the wider system.
Justice Malcolm Rowe challenged whether contractual control meets the statute’s conduct-and-manage requirement. He said that controlling an arrangement through contracts did not necessarily mean managing and conducting it within the meaning of the legislation.
The appellants include Atlantic Lottery Corporation, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation and Loto-Québec. They argue that the model conflicts with the Criminal Code and could permit partnerships with international operators that are unlawful elsewhere in Canada. The coalition has also alleged that Ontario-licensed platforms promoted international sites to Canadians outside Ontario, although iGaming Ontario instructed sites under its responsibility to stop such redirections.
Ontario’s market has been ring-fenced since launching in April 2022, requiring players to be physically located in the province. That constraint limits poker tables and pay-to-play daily fantasy contests, and DraftKings and FanDuel subsequently ended their Ontario daily-fantasy operations while retaining sports-betting and online-casino offerings.
Ontario says international participation could draw users away from unlawful websites, improve protections against fraud and addiction, and generate public revenue. The province has about 50 private-sector sports-betting and casino operators, and more than 90% of online gamblers are estimated to use provincially regulated sites, compared with about 30% in 2021.
A ruling upholding the appeal court would still leave Ontario needing regulatory arrangements and agreements with international jurisdictions before licensed poker rooms could share players. A reversal would keep Ontario’s regulated market closed to players outside the province.
