It looks like there’s going to be significant growth in the Ontario poker market. A late-2025 court ruling enabled Ontario’s players to compete against anyone globally, and it’s the kind of regulatory shift that doesn’t come around often. Here, you’ll learn what that means for online poker players, some figures related to the industry, and why you should care even if you’re not from Ontario.
April 2022 saw online gambling become regulated in the province of Ontario. Unfortunately for poker players this meant that the game had been isolated within provincial limits. Poker tournaments saw extremely low turnouts, while cash game lobbies were scandalously sparse considering the size of the market. November 2025 saw a landmark court ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal that granted legal permission to allow provincial operators to host tournaments with non-provincial players, potentially changing the way poker in Ontario will work in years to come.
The Closed Liquidity Era and Why It Needed to Change
In May 2026, Ontario’s online casino handle exceeded $8.37 billion, but poker was taking in far less than other casino games. Waiting 20 minutes for a $1/$2 cash game to fill up was the norm. That’s what happens when players are stuck competing only within one province.
Closed liquidity refers to when players are restricted to playing with others who are physically present in Ontario. This contrasts sharply with what unregulated offshore sites operate as, and is a regulated equivalent iGaming Ontario refers to as ring-fencing. Though there were nearly 1.26 million active player accounts in May, very few poker players made it to the virtual tables. There’s this stark disconnect between Ontario’s colossal regulated gaming market and poker tournament access. It comes down to iGaming Ontario’s underlying building blocks.
The Court of Appeal’s decision in November 2025 cracked that door open. In its 4-1 ruling, the court stated that playing online with individuals outside Canada does not contradict Canadian law. The question is no longer whether this can happen, but how fast operators and regulators can make it real.
What the Court of Appeal Decision Really Means
The verdict came in November 12th, 2025, and the Ontario court has confirmed that it is still legal for people in Ontario to play online poker in instances when they play against non-Canadians. It’s basically a wake up call for all of those poker players grinding all those vacant tables with no real gains for years.
If we play the with liquidity, players from Ontario will be competing with players from across different nations. In any given tournament, you might have people from Malta, Michigan, and the UK all playing together. However, such jurisdictions should have rules similar to those of Ontario. With that, the pool of players becomes bigger, and the level of competitions becomes more interesting than what has been before.
There are a total of 79 websites being managed by 45 operators under the supervision of AGCO and iGaming Ontario. Resources are available from Casino.ca that give information about these digital casino for Ontario players, including the rates of return and the types of games available. According to Liam Blackley, Guide editor at Casino.ca: “Ontario’s regulated online casinos changed the experience for players by bringing major brands into a market with strict oversight, player protections, and clear accountability. That means you’ll benefit from safer deposits and withdrawals, audited games, responsible gambling safeguards, and real recourse if something goes wrong.”
Legal Certainty and the Road Ahead
Now, for those operators who have been pushing for this, there’s finally legal assurance that they can move forward with actual investment. Establishing a pool system requires negotiations with foreign regulators as well as substantial investment in technology, and no one makes such investments in an uncertain legal landscape. It’s now known that Criminal Code will not be an impediment any more, and the discussions with the partner jurisdictions have gained momentum in the last few months owing to this fact.
The figures from May 2026 speak for themselves. A handle of $8.37 billion led to the operator revenue of $326.4 million with year-over-year growth rate of 20.4% in handle and 25.6% in revenue, as per Canadian Gaming Business. In a market that is this active, boxing in the poker game leaves both customers and the operators feeling something’s missing.
Here is what Ontario’s legal market looked like in May 2026:
| Category | May 2026 Figure |
|---|---|
| Total bets (licensed operators) | $9.48 billion |
| Online casino handle | $8.37 billion |
| Operator revenue (non-adjusted GGR) | $413.1 million |
| Active player accounts | 1.26 million |
| Year-over-year handle growth | 20.4% |
| Year-over-year revenue growth | 25.6% |
In Ontario, 1.26M active users produce an average of $329 per head. Poker accounted for very little of this. It’s easy for a poker focused online casino site to attract new players among the 45 licensees targeting each other across 79 sites by, say, offering guarantees on its tournaments or simply ensuring there are non-empty poker tables in the dead of night.
Numbers That Point to What’s Coming
What if you logged in on Tuesday night and found an 800-player $50k guaranteed tourney? But not even the big players on Ontario’s “closed system” can make a tournament of this size happen. The numbers show it’s well on its way. Canadian Gaming Business showed operator earnings heading for $4 billion per year and this surge proves giving a comprehensive poker product is something that needs further consideration.
Poker’s liquidity struggles aren’t unique to Ontario either, and there are concrete reasons why this pattern repeats itself across different markets:
- Peer-to-peer games need critical mass just to function. Slots run with one player. Poker does not.
- Small, ring-fenced markets consistently produce the same result: thin fields, long wait times, and a game library that quietly shrinks until serious players leave.
- Several U.S. states tackled an almost identical problem through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, connecting player pools across state lines without giving up local regulatory control.
- Ontario’s approach is more ambitious, targeting international connectivity across multiple fully regulated jurisdictions rather than just neighboring states.
- Regulators have a practical incentive to make this work too, because operators without a viable poker product eventually move their investment to markets where one already exists.
Poaching even 1% of those existing casino account holders into regular poker would alter tonight’s tournament schedule overnight.
What Operators and Players Should Watch For
Operators have not hesitated in taking action. PokerStars Ontario closed its doors on May 7, 2026, only to return on June 5, 2026 as a FanDuel-integrated skin. It’s worth noting that players will continue being ring-fenced, and It’s going to remain like that until the cross-border framework is implemented. Larger tournament guarantees more variations of game formats and more promotional campaigns from top online operators are expected when the players get to play against each other across borders.
When you find yourself moving up and entering into bigger tournaments, familiarize yourself with how you can work out what your equity is as a player. A poker odds calculator can provide you with an accurate assessment of what your probability is of winning mid-hand with your hole cards and the board dealt, and the players that can figure this one out are players that go deep as opposed to players that go bust being frustrated. Equity knowledge will be the marker that distinguishes a seasoned grinder from all others.
As the number of players grows and the operators increase their efforts to attract your attention, the rakeback deal might become more advantageous. Rakeback is a reward for your gambling activities, which takes the form of partial refund of the rake to your account. In the competitive market, the rakeback offers are likely to shift towards players’ advantage.
The courts have done the walking, the operators have all staked their claim, and the players are topping up their accounts. The final act to unlock Ontario’s regulated market is connecting players with international ones and this should have been completed long ago. In the event all this gambling action is more than you can take, please remember that problem gambling services are at hand. Remember to keep an eye on the news, your budgeted bankroll, and ways to level up your poker skills in the meantime.
