20 October 2026
Ontario's internet gaming market already requires regulated sites to offer crucial player safeguards. Now, as the industry prepares for a major self-exclusion expansion in 2026, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is moving to further strengthen its framework for responsible gaming.
Since its 2022 launch, Ontario's regulated online gambling framework has mandated that all gaming sites allow players to set important financial and time-based controls. AGCO Standard 2.23 requires operators to give players easy access to setting deposit limits, loss limits, and time limits upon first registering and at any point after that, to prevent impulsive spending. For example, a player can set a 1-month maximum loss limit of $100, which automatically stops them from losing more in that timeframe.
These limits must be available for periods of 24 hours, 7 days, and one month. If a player sets multiple limits that overlap, the most restrictive limit applies. So if they set a daily deposit limit of $20 but also set a weekly limit of $100, they will only be able to deposit a total of $40 per week ($20 each of the first 3 days). To guard against making quick, emotional decisions to relax their limits, the AGCO also requires a 24-hour cooling-off period before any previously set limit can be changed.
Beyond setting financial limits, AGCO's game management standards also safeguard players by automatically logging them out after a period of inactivity and by requiring real-time updates to sports betting odds.
Player activity time-outs automatically end a player's active session after a certain amount of time, which helps stop absent-minded spending during extended play. Players must confirm they're still actively participating, typically by clicking a button, to prevent accidental losses during times of distraction. And since odds in sports betting can shift before or during an event, AGCO requires those odds to be regularly updated and displayed to players, ensuring players always know the true risk at stake, according to the commission's game management rules.
While players can already set limits and exclude themselves from individual sites, a more comprehensive safeguard is on the way. iGaming Ontario (iGO), the commercial partner overseeing Ontario's online gambling, has launched a program called BetGuard which provides centralized self-exclusion across all regulated online gaming sites in the province. This allows players who struggle with gambling to fully exit the regulated Ontario market with a single, streamlined process.
The AGCO has announced that its Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming have been updated in preparation for this new self-exclusion program, which is slated to launch in 2026. That will put the completion touch on an online gambling framework that combines limit-setting, cooling-off periods, and time-outs with centralized self-exclusion for their most at-risk players. As of now, iGO is one year into its first major authorized gaming agreement with the province, and individualized limit-setting measures have been in place since the regulated online market began in April 2022.
These rules and safeguards are intended to protect Ontario residents from gambling-related harm while keeping online gaming within a closely regulated and taxed framework. Given that the legal gambling age is 19, spending controls are particularly important to help prevent young players from exceeding their limits. With iGO's BetGuard program, the AGCO has expanded on this starting point to provide a full menu of protections to keep the most vulnerable players safe, from total self-exclusion to limit-setting, cooling-off periods, and player time-outs. Along with supporting player well-being, Ontario's regulated gambling market is also expected to help curb its gambling problem rate. According to the provincial statistics agency, in 2017 the estimated problem gambling rate was 2.5% province-wide, and $29.5 million was dedicated to prevention and treatment, up from $22.4 million the previous year.