Best Canada Online Casinos – Canadian Internet Casinos

canada casinos

Canadian online casinos cater to Canada’s computer gamblers by offering Canadian dollars as a money option, supports both English and French as a language, and uses electronic transfer services which accept Canadians. You won’t find a legal online casino inside Canada, but individual online gambling is legal for all Canadian citizens. Players will even find a famous Native Canadian tribe which licenses online casinos throughout the world. Canada is obviously a great deal friendlier to online gambling than the United States, which is why web-based gambling operations cater to Canadian players so much.

Gaming Control Act and Other Laws

In 1992, Ontario passed the Gaming Control Act to control the rapidly growing gambling industry inside their province. In 1996, Ontario’s lawmakers passed the Alcohol and Gaming Regulation and Public Protection Act as an expansion of the original gambling regulation law for Ontario. The 1996 act is the law enforced by the Gaming Control Commission of Ontario, which gives it the authority to oversee and regulate the casinos in Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario. Similar laws can be found throughout the Canada which often follow similar patterns as the law established in Canada’s largest province. Look and you’re likely to find similar gambling control laws for Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. On a national level, certain gambling laws are enforced under more general laws stipulated by the Criminal Code of Canada.

Best Canadian Online Casinos & Casinos in CDN Dollar

Rank Online Casino Bonus Mobile Learn More
1. Spin Palace $1000 Droid / iPhone / iPad Spin Palace Casino
2. 888 Casino $500 Droid / iPhone / iPad 888 Casino
3. All Slots Casino $1000 Droid / iPhone / iPad All Slots Casino
4. Bet365 Casino $1000 Droid / iPhone / iPad Bet365 Casino

Legalized Canadian Online Gambling

The question of whether it’s legal for online gamblers in Canada is a bit of a gray area, except in the Province of Quebec. Quebec has laws which overtly state Quebecois have the right to legally gamble over the Internet. The other provinces don’t, though they have no laws stating it’s illegal for Canadians to gamble electronically over their computer. The de facto law is therefore that Canadians can bet online without any legal ramifications.

Canadian lawmakers don’t take that extra step and allow online gambling operators on their soil. Therefore, you won’t find too many native Canadian online gambling operations, though players from the Great White North can enjoy sites for real-money that are based in other countries worldwide. It’s a great deal easier to receive money for Internet casino winnings in Canada than it is in Canada’s neighbor to the south, the United States. That’s because the credit card companies and the e-wallet services don’t have to worry about whether they’ll get penalized or prosecuted by taking money from or paying Canadian gamblers.

Since it’s legal for Canadians to gamble at most international online gambling sites, the main concern for Canadian players is which casinos caters to their needs. That usually comes down to those sites which cater to the English and French languages, and (especially) which sites allow players to deposit and withdraw cash using the Canadian dollar as a currency.

Online Casinos and Canadian Dollars

As of 2018, more casinos are offering games with Canadian dollars than ever. Gambling is becoming globalized, at least for most countries outside the United States and Muslim controlled countries, where politicians and moralists seem to agree that betting on games of chance is bad. This move towards a global consensus about online gambling means that more Internet casinos are offering dozens of currencies and language options.

Consolidation of the casino software development industry has probably helped, as big name software providers like Microgaming, Playtech, Cryptologic, Realtime Gaming, IGT/Wagerworks, and Rival Gaming dominate the market. While other fine software designers exist who do some amazing work with 3D slots and the streaming of live dealers, those six providers tend to be the ones most mainstream casinos use these days, so their names will be discussed often as you read about online gambling.

Some of the big name casinos prefer to use proprietary software, but I’ve noticed that seems more common in the online poker rooms. I suppose it’s easier to create a Texas Hold’em platform than it is to design gaming software for blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, keno, 50 video poker games, and 150 slot machine games. It’s often better to leave that work to the experts, who then license their software to individual sites. This allows the experts to continue investing in currency option and language option upgrades, so more gets added all the time. Since Microgaming powers more online casinos than any other company, I’ll discuss a few of their clients.

This should give you an idea of how these various properties compare–and how you should mix and match comparisons of these online casinos. You would think SpinPalace and Bet365 would be the exact same thing, but they have much different initial bonus offers. Besides getting $1,000 Canadian instead of $750 Canadian, you don’t have the limiting one-hour stipulation at Spin Palace. The same goes for games selection, the number of players in each casino property, and so on. These are all factors you should weigh.

Gambling Authorities of Canada

If you’re a prospective Canadian gambler and you still aren’t sure whether it’s legal to gamble online with your computer, you can read more about Canadian gambling laws through the official websites of the various authorities and organizers of land-based Canadian gambling interests. Those wanting to know about Canadian gambling authorities might want to read more just for the sake of knowing, so I’ve included this as a quick reference and resource.

  • Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation – Native Canadian (First Nations) casinos, commercial casinos, racinos, racino slots, lottery products, bingo halls, and charity games.
  • Ontario Alcohol and Gaming Commission – Casinos, slot machine parlors, and nonprofit charitable casinos.
  • Quebec Regie des alcools, des courses et des jeux – Regulates all gaming inside Quebec, including casino gambling, lottery games, horse racing, and parimutuel wagering.
  • Loto Quebec – Owns three casinos, numerous charitable bingo parlors, and countless video lottery terminals inside the Province of Quebec.
  • Saskatchewan Gaming Authority – Licenses and regulates casinos, lottery gaming, raffles, charitable bingo games, so-called break-open tickets, parimutuel betting, horse tracks. The Gaming Authority issues licenses to gaming organization’s employees.
  • Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority – Operates the Saskatchewan Indian Nations’ 2 casino operations.
  • Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation – Oversight and regulation on the two casinos.
  • Manitoba Horse Racing Commission – Harness racing, Thoroughbred racing, harness racing, pari-mutuel betting, and all other activities at the Manitoba racetracks.
  • Manitoba Gaming Control Commission – Casinos, lottery games, raffles, charitable gaming, bingo halls.
  • Manitoba Lotteries Corporation – Organizes lottery sales, video lottery terminals, and 2 casino operations inside Manitoba.
  • British Columbia Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch – Regulates the BC Lottery, Casinos, Bingo Halls, Horse Racing, Off-Track Betting, and Simulcasts.
  • British Columbia Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General – Oversees the BC Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch
  • British Columbia Lottery Corporation – Operates the British Columbia Provincial Lottery.
  • Western Canada Lottery Corporation – Handles the lotteries of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.
  • Newfoundland & Labrador Trade Practices and Licensing Division – Regulates lottery gaming and bingo hall gambling and lotteries in Newfoundland and Labrador.
  • Atlantic Lottery Corporation – The ALC owns and organizes the Newfoundland & Labrador Lottery official lottery.
  • Nova Scotia Alcohol and Gaming Authority – Licenses any gambling employees inside Nova Scotia, along with the organizations who employ them.
  • Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation – Owns and administers ticket lotteries, video lotteries, and casinos through its operators: Atlantic Lottery Corporation and Great Canadian Gaming Corporation.
  • Atlantic Lottery Corporation – The ALC operates the ticket and video lottery businesses in Nova Scotia.
  • Great Canadian Gaming Corporation – GCGC is the owner owns and operates the casino operation in Halifax and Sydney: the Casino Nova Scotia. CNS and the GCGC are owned by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.
  • New Brunswick Lotteries Commission – Lottery gaming oversight.
  • Atlantic Lottery Corporation – Owns the New Brunswick Lottery.

Kahnawake Gaming Commission

I mentioned the Kahnawake Gaming Commission in passing earlier, but I wanted to explain that reference in greater detail before I ended. If I were to talk about Canadian online gambling and not detail the Kahnawake tribe’s major contribution to world casino gambling, I wouldn’t have done my job. The Kahnawake First Nations Reservation is found just across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, Quebec. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission issues licenses to online casino operators, assuring they run fair and equitable gaming operations in compliance with international law. As you can see, if ever the Canadian government chooses to make it legal for gambling sites to be hosted on Canadian soil, you know where its license will come from.