Ontario's move to a fully regulated online-gambling framework for the Canadian province's residents now includes an October 31, 2022 warning to all grey-market online-gambling operators still providing services to Ontario. Ontario's online-gambling regulatory body, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), issued the directive this week while also making changes to the Registrar's Standards that govern all online gambling in the province.
Described as a move that ends the transition period for sites now licensed in Ontario that formerly operated in an unregulated manner, the official October 31 cutoff date also establishes a date when Ontario's authorities could consider pursuing investigations against continuing or new unregulated operators, possibly barring them from future licensure in the province.
One now-licensed operator not likely to be impacted by the new directive is the WSOP.ca Ontario site, operated by GGPoker; former GGPoker.com players from Ontario were recently migrated to the WSOP.ca platform.
"A key objective of the AGCO has been to move igaming operators and gaming-related suppliers into Ontario’s regulated market as quickly and as seamlessly as possible," and AGCO statement declared. "To support this objective, the AGCO established a process for existing operators and gaming-related suppliers in the unregulated market to move into the regulated market without causing significant interruption to their Ontario customer base."
