According to a new report by Ipsos, it was found that more than 85% of players in Ontario were playing on regulated sites. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and iGaming Ontario commissioned the report to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the regulated iGaming market in the Canadian capital province that was launched on April 4, 2022.
To compile the report, Ipsos surveyed 1,850 Ontario residents aged nineteen and over from February 28 to March 13, 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 platform. It is worth mentioning that 19.5% of them had placed bets on both legal and illegal sites, leaving only 14.7% who had gambled on illegal websites.
Doug Downey, the attorney general of Ontario, expressed his pride in the province’s online gaming market, calling it a great success in its first year of operation. Downey stated that since its launch in April 2022, Ontario’s iGaming market successfully displaced the existing unregulated market and made Ontario an internationally recognized leader in the industry.
Tom Mungham, the registrar and CEO of the AGCO, stated that the primary goal in the first year was to move Ontario players from unregulated to regulated sites to provide high standards of the operator and game integrity, fairness, and player protections, including responsible gambling safeguards. Although there is still a lot of work to be done, Mungham is pleased to see such a significant shift towards gaming on regulated sites and everything it represents for players and the province.