Penalties and Fines for Online and Land-Based Casinos
In addition to independent private operators online, the AGCO also regulates the provincial OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation). When necessary, the AGCO may fine Ontario casinos that don't meet its standards. This can be in relation to responsible gambling, the fairness of games, advertising rule breaches, or other infractions.
Land based casinos are not exempt and the Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto received a $350,000 fine from the AGCO for a number of different violations after they hosted an after party on their gaming floor.
One of the first big Ontario gambling fines was issued to PointsBet in 2023. They were fined $150k by the AGCO for breaching responsible gambling protocols. Specifically, PointsBet had failed to intervene and assist a player who lost over $500k in under three months, including advertising to the player without consent and failing to enforce a 24 hour cooling off period[1].
Overview of AGCO Fines by Casino Brand
Some of the AGCO casino violations have led to penalties, for a range of reasons from responsible gambling and age verification failures to advertising infractions contrary to AGCO standards. Failing to implement a self-exclusion period landed PointsBet in hot water as mentioned above, but there have been numerous other fines and penalties as detailed in the table below.
Detailed Fines Table
Casino Fine Amount Date Issued Reason NorthStar Gaming (Ontario) Inc. $100,000 August 2026 Fined in August 2026 for alleged failures to comply with provincial anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. Booming Games (Malta) Limited $70,000 August 2026 Fined in August 2026 after prohibited auto-play functionality was made available to Ontario players on multiple slot games for several months. Betty Gaming Limited $120,000 August 2026 Fined in August 2026 for age verification failures that allowed underage users to open gambling accounts, deposit funds, and place wagers. 23 individuals were able to open accounts. Nine of these deposited funds and placed bets on the Betty.ca platform. Relax Gaming Limited $40,000 May 2026 Fined in May 2026 for their involvement in the unregulated gambling market. Their online casino games were available on unlicensed gambling sites, which were accessible to players in Ontario. Arrise Solutions Limited $40,000 May 2026 Fined in May 2026 for their online casino games being available on unrelated gambling websites, which were accessible to Ontario players. FanDuel Canada $350,000 January 2026 Fined in January 2026 for failing to identify and report suspicious betting activity which involved 144 table tennis bets. theScore $105,000 October 2025 Fined in October 2025 for failing to address a player's high-risk gambling behavior. A user lost $230,000 over an eight month period without adequate intervention. Casino Days (Well Played Media) $54,000 June 2025 Offered a welcome bonus that included difficult-to-find terms, and encouraged risky betting behaviour BetMGM $110,000 March 2025 The opertor was fined when it was found that cash was offered to members of the public to open accounts via third parties PointsBet $150,000 November 2023 Responsible gambling failing, advertised to player without consent, didn't enforce cooling off period, and the aforementioned player lost $500,000 in 3 months Apollo Entertainment $100,000 August 2023 Multiple responsible gambling violations, not intervening with players at risk of harm (including one who lost over $2m in under 4 months), inadequate provision of responsible gambling tools, and failure to ensure employees understood the importance of responsible gambling BV Gaming (BetVictor) $15,000 June 2023 Offered bets on Canadian minor league sports Mobile Incorporated Limited (Conquestador) $30,000 April 2023 Provided games that weren't approved by the AGCO Registrar, or certified by an Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL) registered by the Registrar LeoVegas $25,000 April 2023 Offered games that were not AGCO approved or independently certified by an AGCO approved testing laboratory. Bunchberry Limited (ComeOn) $15,000 April 2023 Had games that the AGCO hadn't approved. The games were also not certified by an Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL) registered by the Registrar DraftKings $100,000 June 2022 Promoted inducements of boosted odds by both television and social media channels, contrary to the restriction on advertising inducements BetMGM $48,000 May 2022 Failed to meet advertising standards, including implication that spending more increases the chance of winning PointsBet $30,000 May 2022 Failed to comply with advertising standards by advertising free play within the GO Transit system
Closed Casinos
In addition to the instances mentioned above, there are a couple of closed casino fines in Ontario. Similarly to BetVictor, Fitzdares Canada Limited received a $15,000 fine for offering bets on minor league sports (major junior hockey leagues)[2].
The AGCO also fined the now-closed Unibet ON Inc $48,000 for advertising and inducement infractions regarding "generous welcome offers".
Land-Based Casino Fines Ontario
Many of the largest Ontario casino penalties have been applied to land-based casinos. The Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto and its $350,000 fine has already been mentioned. In addition, Grand Canadian Entertainment received a $151,000 penalty for numerous failures to prevent minors from accessing gambling at three Toronto casinos[3]. These were Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto, Casino Ajax, and Pickering Casino Resort.
In 2022, an audit of Rideau Carleton Casino led to a fine of $227,250 for HR Ottawa LP. There were 36 violations included in this fine and these included advertising and promotional breaches, not enforcing the correct anti-money laundering procedures, and not addressing concerns raised by internal auditors.
Fallsview Casino was subject to a $70,000 penalty for failures regarding anti-money laundering measures.
AGCO Has Strict Regulation Policies That Are Enforced
As you can see, the AGCO enforces regulatory requirements and fines may be issued to operators that break the rules. These have ranged from responsible gambling to advertising breaches. In Ontario, the legal age for gambling is 19 or older. KYC and ID verification is a must, and responsible gambling is encouraged through multiple agencies including ConnexOntario.
Sources
- AGCO issues $150,000 in penalties to PointsBet for violations of internet gaming responsible gambling standards | Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario - agco.ca
- AGCO issues monetary penalties to BV Gaming and Fitzdares Canada for offering prohibited bets on Canadian major junior hockey | Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario - agco.ca
- AGCO issues penalties of $151,000 against Great Canadian Entertainment for alleged age verification failures | Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario - agco.ca
Written by Richard Kilner - Content Writer Richard is a content writer with many years of experience in the iGaming industry. At Online-Casinos.ca he is responsible for writing in-depth gaming guides, bonus pages, and articles that deliver factual information for our readers across a range of topics. Richard is a sports enthusiast and our go to for all sports betting content.
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