A new report conducted by research company Ipsos has found that more than 85% of players are playing on regulated sites in Ontario.
The report was commissioned by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and iGaming Ontario to mark the one-year anniversary of the province’s regulated igaming market, which opened on April 4 2022.
To compile the report, Ipsos surveyed 1,850 Ontario residents aged 19 and over from February 28 to 13 March 2023.
The report revealed that 85.3% of respondents who had gambled online in the province over the last three months had wagered on a regulated website. Of this total, 19.5% wagered on both legal and illegal sites.
This left 14.7% who had wagered on illegal sites.
“A key objective in this first year has been to move Ontario players from playing on unregulated sites to the regulated market, so that they would benefit from high standards of operator and game integrity, fairness and player protections including responsible gambling safeguards,” said Tom Mungham, registrar and CEO of the AGCO.
“Although there’s still much work to be done, we’re pleased to see such a substantial shift towards gaming on regulated sites so far, and everything that it represents for players and for the province.”
Doug Downey, attorney general of Ontario said that the province’s online gaming market had been a great success in its first year of operation.
“Since its launch in April 2022, Ontario’s igaming market has displaced the existing unregulated market and made Ontario an internationally recognized leader in this industry,” said Downey. “We are truly proud of this strong, responsible, competitive online gaming model.”