In the AGCO’s annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, published on Jan. 14, 2025, the regulator said it is spent the year collaborating with international jurisdictions on tackling the grey market.

Most notably, the notes included the fact that it is working on “a comprehensive strategy” to limit industry access to the unregulated market and increase public awareness “by delivering a second generation of high-impact, coordinated and relevant regulatory activities.”

Collaboration with international jurisdictions on tackling the unregulated iGaming market continued in 2023-24 and a comprehensive strategy is in the process of being drafted to limit industry access to the unregulated market and increase public awareness by delivering a second generation of high impact, coordinated and relevant regulatory activities.

Exactly what that will entail is uncertain, but it likely includes working together with operators, suppliers and other stakeholders in Ontario’s regulated market on a tactical approach.

The AGCO, as well as the newly independent conduct-and-manage entity iGaming Ontario (iGO) and the Ontario Lottery and Corporation (OLG) are also fond of emphasizing that communication and collaboration with other provinces is vital, so the AGCO will likely be talking to the crown corporations and government officials elsewhere in Canada, too.

“Building off of our early channelization success, we continue to work with industry stakeholders and other jurisdictions to combat the unregulated market while continuing to work towards crafting a comprehensive strategy with our government partners,” the AGCO’s Raymond Kahnert told Canadian Gaming Business in response to a request for more details.

Channelization has gone well so far

As Kahnert alluded to, AGCO’s bid to starve the unregulated iGaming market of oxygen is an attempt to consolidate what has been strong progress is bringing online gaming play in the province under regulation.

In the report, CEO and Registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr cited stats from an Ipsos study to that found that over 85% of respondents who gambled online in Ontario were doing so on regulated sites, something Schnarr wrote “represents considerable success” in the core goal of bringing play out from the shadows and into the light.

Given that survey was conducted to coincide with the first anniversary of Ontario’s market opening on April 4, 2022, and given that the market is now approaching its third birthday, those stats are long outdated.

But data provided to Canadian Gaming Business by gambling research firm H2 Gambling Capital in late 2024 suggest that as of the end of the 2024 fiscal year, the unregulated market holds down just 7% of the market in terms of gross gaming revenue from online casino and sports betting. H2 credits OLG with 16% and the province’s 50+ commercial operators with 77%.

Following in US footsteps?

The AGCO and Ontario will likely be looking at least in part at how U.S. regulators and state governments have turned the screw on unlicensed operators in recent times.

Numerous states have sent cease-and-desist letters to a slew of offshore operators, most notably a largely successful multi-state campaign to force Curaçao-based Bovada to shut down.

Just this week, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency said it has sent 11 such letters to unlicensed gambling operators, most which provide customers with access to sweepstakes offerings.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Antigua and Barbuda-based Bodog quietly took itself offline in Nova Scotia, where the only licensed sports betting and online gaming offerings are delivered by the multi-provincial Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC).