Best Online Casinos in Canada in 2024

Information about Canada online casino sites

Online casino players in Canada have a wide selection of casino sites to choose from, but it's not always simple to find a legit online casino in Canada that allows you to play your favourite games and deposit or withdraw money without issues.

This page is designed to help you find the best casino online in Canada: one that is rated highly by the Casino Guru team, and that you can trust to give you an excellent online casino experience. There are also Canada online casino reviews by experts and players available for you to read through to make sure you make an informed decision about your gambling journey.

Before choosing a real money online casino in Canada, it's also a good idea to be informed of the gambling legislation in the country, so read on to find out more.

Table of contents:

Land-based gambling in Canada

Since its formation at the end of the 19th century, the Canadian Criminal Code has allowed gambling under certain conditions, although this was quite restrictive: citizens could play some games of chance for charitable or religious purposes, but little else.

This changed in 1970 when drastic changes to the legislation allowed provinces to license and regulate gambling for the first time. The first commercial casinos appeared in Winnipeg and Montréal, followed by other provinces soon after, paving the way to the multi-billion-dollar gambling industry that exists today.

Canadian gambling laws are generally quite permissive, especially compared to the country's southern neighbor, the United States. Citizens can bet on casino games, sporting events and lottery-based games, including bingo and raffles.

Today, Canada seems to have struck a good balance between allowing land-based gambling to be a fun pastime, but with reasonable laws aimed at controlling problem betting. It's fair to say that Canada sets a good example for other nations to follow.

The Canadian gambling industry is regulated by a number of authorities whose job is to check that gambling companies keep to the rules and provide the players with a safe playing experience.

Online gambling in Canada

Canada has no specific law prohibiting online gambling, unlike many other countries. In fact, the topic is something of a grey area in Canadian law, except for Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act from 2019. This legislation regulates online gambling within Ontario.

iGaming Ontario, a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), oversees online gaming operations in partnership with commercial operators in the province. As a result, online gambling in Ontario is completely legal at casinos approved by iGaming Ontario.

As for other provinces, it's perfectly safe and legal to play at online casinos in Canada, as nothing forbids the user from doing so. Canadian law also doesn't stop players from using offshore online casino sites unlike in the USA.

Much like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, operating unlicensed online casinos is strictly forbidden in Canada. Section 201(1) of the Canadian Code prohibits the 'keeping of a common gaming or betting house', meaning an unlicensed establishment. There are substantial fines and even jail terms for operators who break this law.

While you are at no legal risk should you decide to play on an unlicensed site, you might have problems depositing money and claiming winnings―so it's a good idea to use the Casino Guru system of finding the safest online casinos to play at.

Players in Canada are also not taxed on their winnings, as long as they're playing for fun. If they show signs of professional skill and treat the games as a full-time job, then they run the risk of it being classed as a taxable activity.

Canada online casino sites are rising in popularity with players more and more likely to play online casino games at home than in a real-life casino. As a result, it's likely that more online casino sites will appear in the future, so it's always a good idea to know how to choose the best online casino in Canada to play at.

How to choose the best online casino in Canada

At Casino Guru, one of our main goals is to help players find safe and relevant online casinos. Firstly, for casino sites to appear on this list, they need to show that they accept players from Canada and that they allow them to deposit, gamble, and withdraw their money.

Additionally, our team analyzes each casino and rates them according to their safety and fairness, as well as other factors. To find the online Canada casino sites that meet these standards the best, you can use the filter system on this page.

Selecting the 'Recommended' tab at the top of the page will give you only highly rated sites recommended by our team. These are the ones you can feel confident about using. The 'Newly opened' and 'Big brands' tabs will guide you to the most recent and most famous options respectively, just in case you want to narrow your options down. The 'All' tab, meanwhile, will display all Canada online casino sites in our database.

To narrow down your options even further, try our filters. They're super easy to use and can help you find exactly what you need. For example, the 'Withdrawal Limit' filter lets you set a minimum withdrawal limit, and the 'Payment Method' filter lets you find casinos that accept popular Canadian providers, such as Neosurf, Citadel, Interac or InstaDebit.

If you're looking for fast or even instant withdrawals, the speed of the withdrawal process really comes down to the payment method you choose. And if you're on the hunt for the best payouts at an online casino in Canada, remember that it's more about the game you play than the casino itself.