Licensing & Compliance

Readers sometimes assume that because this site writes about online casinos, it must itself be licensed to run one. It isn’t, and it doesn’t need to be — Adam Bradford is an independent publisher that writes about the Ontario and Canadian online casino market and, on some outbound links to operators, earns a referral commission. It does not accept deposits, does not offer games, and does not hold or require a gambling operator’s licence from AGCO or any other body. That distinction matters, so we’re stating it directly rather than leaving it implied.

Who actually regulates online gambling in Ontario

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is the provincial regulator responsible for gambling in Ontario generally. iGaming Ontario (iGO), a subsidiary of AGCO, launched and oversees the province’s regulated online gambling market specifically, which went live in April 2022. Operators that want to legally offer online casino games or sports betting to Ontario players have to register with iGO and meet AGCO’s Registrar’s Standards — rules covering things like game fairness, advertising conduct, and player protection tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion.

That registration process is what separates a “regulated Ontario operator” from a site simply accepting Canadian players from outside the province’s oversight. Registered operators appear on AGCO/iGO’s own published lists, which is the source we check against when a claim on this site references an operator’s registration status — not a badge in a footer.

Unregulated and offshore operators

Not every casino site that accepts Canadian traffic is registered with iGO. Some operators run out of other jurisdictions, holding licences issued elsewhere, and target Canadian players without going through Ontario’s registration process. That’s not automatically a scam — many offshore-licensed operators run legitimate, functioning businesses — but it does mean AGCO’s specific player-protection standards, dispute processes, and oversight don’t apply to that relationship the way they would with an Ontario-registered operator. It’s a difference worth knowing before depositing, not a claim that every non-Ontario-registered site is unsafe.

What this means for what we publish

When an article on this site describes an operator as registered in Ontario, that’s checked against AGCO/iGO’s published register at the time of writing, with the check date noted where relevant — see How We Check Facts for the methodology. We don’t run our own licensing verification body, don’t issue any kind of seal or certification, and don’t have the authority to license or de-license anyone. Any question about an operator’s actual regulatory status is best confirmed directly on AGCO or iGaming Ontario’s own site.

Why this distinction matters to readers

Some sites in this space blur the line between “we write about casinos” and “we are somehow part of the regulatory or licensing process,” whether through vague language or design choices that imply an official status they don’t have. We’d rather be direct: this is a publisher, funded in part by referral commissions disclosed on the Affiliate Disclosure page, with no regulatory authority, no enforcement power, and no ability to guarantee an operator’s conduct. If a reader has a compliance concern about a specific operator, the AGCO and iGaming Ontario are the bodies with actual jurisdiction, and this page exists partly to make sure that’s clear rather than assumed.