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Posted on: December 30, 2025, 04:32h.
Last updated on: December 30, 2025, 04:32h.
- Ontario market hits record rev peak
- Impatient finger-tapping, waiting on Alberta’s market launch
- Premier Ford’s Niagara Falls casino gambit
It’s tough to chop down 2025 Canadian gaming stories to a Top 5, but we’re game to give it a try anyway.
For example, whatever happened to the National Sports Betting Solution, initiated by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) last Spring, aimed at competing with the private sector operators by rolling out a new cohesive national sports betting solution? BCLC and ALC said they were partnering up to build the new “best in class” platform and were conducting a request for proposal via the MERX platform on behalf of BCLC. Closing date for proposals got pushed to May 5.
“Atlantic Lottery, along with the other provincial lotteries partnering on this RFP, continue to finalize an agreement as part of the standard procurement process,” a spokesperson from ALC told us just before Christmas. “The results will be publicly posted when a successful proponent has been identified.”
That easily would have made our Top 5, if the crown corporations got it going.
It’s kind of gone down the rabbit hole,” said an industry source. “If this is how long it takes for you (lottery corporations) to make decisions no wonder you have 11% market share in sports. It shouldn’t take this long to evaluate and decide.”
1. Canadian Gaming: Hello, Alberta?
It was in the heat of June that we last got an on-the-record update from someone representing the Alberta government about the launch timing of a new igaming regulatory regime in that fine Western province. Dale Nally, Alberta’s Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, stood up in front of a crowd at the Canadian Gaming Summit, the annual industry get-together shindig, in Toronto, to update the crowd there.
How many operators will jump in right away? Ontario currently has 48 licensed igaming operators, according to the iGaming Ontario site. How close will it be to the Ontario model? We know Albertans love their gaming.
There’s lots of you today that want me to tell you about our advertising, about our tax rate, about things like that,” said Nally then. “We haven’t answered those questions yet. So in terms of next steps, we’re participating in consultations.
“In term of timeframes, I can’t give you a month, but I can tell you early next year, we’re going to be cutting the ribbon on iGaming in Alberta, and we’re very excited to be able to offer that. We’re going to have more to share with you in the near future.”
2. How’s Ontario Faring? A Billion Reasons Why It’s Going Well
As a senior industry source told us last week, the more restrictions you place on the marketplace in a jurisdiction, the less consumer demand is met. He was speaking about why there hasn’t been the upswell of support for legalizing prediction markets in Ontario, like we’re seeing in the U.S., with FanDuel and DraftKings rolling out their own versions of what Polymarket and Kalshi have been doing.
Ontario never capped the number of licensees here, and, boy, has that been reflected in the provincial financial summaries released by iGaming Ontario on a monthly basis. Let the market determine where the players are going to go, not governments or regulators. That’s why you have the mess you have in many U.S. jurisdictions, as prediction markets collide with sportsbook operators, the industry source said.
November was a doozy. Total cash wagers that month were at CAD $9.33 billion, another record for the province, up one per cent from the previous high set in October. Total non-adjusted gross gaming revenue (NAGGR) also set a record, at CAD $406.2 million, a big 10% jump from the previous month.
3. Dougie’s Niagara Falls Casino Gambit
We’ll work to get a Mohegan statement in the New Year, but how would you have liked to have been sitting in their offices when Ontario Premier Doug Ford rolled out his big plans to radically expand Niagara Falls into a casino hub in a news conference earlier this month? There are currently two Niagara Falls casinos – Fallsview Casino and Casino Niagara. Mohegan has a revenue-share agreement with Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation through 2040 to operate those.
Ford’s looking to change the landscape. His Progressive Conservative Party was elected to another majority government in February. Ford’s been really outspoken about bolstering Ontario’s economic standing in light of the damage U.S. tariffs have inflicted on the province and turning Niagara Falls into more of an international Las Vegas-style casino hub, with all the other entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants that would accompany that, and all the potential tax revenue, is a big part of that.
The risk in building out Niagara Falls comes down to the fact it will have a cascading impact (litigation?) on operators like Great Canadian Entertainment with its Woodbine Toronto property and Caesars wth the casino in Windsor. Not to mention, of course, Mohegan.
Mohegan: Pick It Up
“All the big casinos in Las Vegas, we’re serious,” said Ford during a news conference earlier this month. “It’s happening. Get on board, come and put in a proposal, and tell us how you’re going to build a billion dollar casino, hotel with attractions, with cinemas inside, with live theater. That’s what we’re looking for. Casino itself is good, but it’s everything else that comes along with the casinos.
Mohegan is ragging the puck (hockey parlance, meaning pass the puck more). They got to make a decision. You’re either on board or you’re out. Simple. I’m tired of screwing around. We have to build Niagara. We have to invite other casinos in, and (Mohegan) better come to the table. We’re working with them. We’re doing everything we can, but we’ve been working with them for about two years. Now, enough is enough, and we’re moving with you or without you. I prefer to move with you, but if you don’t move, we’re going ahead.”
Your move, Mohegan.
4. Great Canadian Entertainment Unloads Multiple Properties
Also, on the Canadian casino news front, it seemed every month for awhile there we were writing on another Great Canadian Entertainment B.C. casino being sold to a First Nation. Five properties alone have been sold to Petroglyph Development Group (PDG), a wholly owned corporation of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
The Casino Vancouver deal this month was the fifth major casino acquisition in B.C. for the Snuneymuxw involving Great Canadian. Casino Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Elements Casino Victoria, River Rock Casino Resort, and Chances Maple Ridge have also been sold to PDG. Great Canadian Entertainment also announced the sales of Elements Casino Chilliwack to Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe Management Ltd., and Hastings Casino in Vancouver to Tsleil-Waututh Nation in 2025.
Again, getting a comment about actual intentions is like pulling teeth, but we’ll keep trying. Makes you wonder about Ford’s comments about Niagara Falls casino expansion, and Great Canadian Entertainment’s plans for that once it shakes out more.
5. Canadian Lottery Coalition and the Liquidity Question
As reported in Canadian Gaming Business on Dec. 23, three lottery corporations (BCLC, ALC, and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries) filed an appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada over an Ontario Court of Appeal decision in November opening the doors for Ontario-based online poker and daily fantasy sports (DFS) players to compete against people outside Canada. Casino.org earlier wrote about the likelihood of a Supreme Court appeal here.
“I think this thing has zero chance in Supreme Court,” said an industry source.
In that landmark decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal, in a 4-1 ruling, decided that Ontario can legally offer international liquidity — a ruling that will shake up the igaming industry in the province. The President of iGaming Ontario, Joseph Hillier, referenced that huge potential impact in our talk with him the week before Christmas. Big revenue boost coming for Ontario, plus it opens the doors to interprovincial cooperation via liquidity when Alberta opens up.
Canadian Gaming Bonus: National Advertising Legislation Coming
The federal Liberal Party currently has a minority government, just one seat away from a majority (and an intrepid inside-the-Liberal-Party source tells us to expect another Conservative MP to cross the aisle and join the Liberals in 2026, giving them the majority government they seek).
Why do we mention this? Because the National Advertising Standards Bill, sponsored by Senator Marty Deacon (now Bill S-211) , has been bandied about in Canada’s Parliament since the Montreal Canadiens last won an NHL playoff series, it seems. There’s always the risk a minority government gets taken down by a non-confidence vote, so Deacon we are sure really wants to see the Bill cross the goal line.
The enactment provides for the development of a national framework to regulate sports betting advertising in Canada and set national standards to minimize the risk and harms resulting from the proliferation of sports betting advertising, according to the text of the bill.
Bill S-211 is having a second reading in the House of Commons, after having already passed through the Senate. Parliament is set to return on January 26.
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Mark Keast
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