Canadian Sportsbooks Face New Pressure on Payments and Player Safety

iGaming Ontario’s 2024-25 annual report recorded CA$82.7bn in wagers and CA$2.9bn in gaming revenue across 50 licensed operators. The figures establish Ontario as Canada’s dominant regulated betting market and have sharpened regulatory focus on two pressure points: anti-money laundering controls at the payment layer and responsible gambling tools in core product design.

Payments Under Compliance Pressure

Canadian bettors bring digital payment expectations shaped by everyday banking into sportsbook accounts. Payments Canada reported that digital payments made up 86% of total payment volume in 2024, while Interac processed 1.4 billion e-Transfer transactions in the same period.

Those expectations collide with tighter AML obligations. FINTRAC’s January 2024 bulletin on online gambling warned that licensed gambling accounts may be exploited through mismatched payment details, false identities, or third-party accounts. The regulator also identified prepaid cards and voucher systems as higher-risk funding methods. For operators, faster withdrawals improve retention, but weak verification at the point of withdrawal increases both regulatory and financial exposure.

The Bank of Canada has extended its oversight further into the payments chain. Reuters reported the central bank started to register payment service providers in November 2024, with fund-protection and risk-management requirements due to take effect on September 8, 2025. Sportsbook operators depend on the same payment infrastructure those rules govern.

Responsible Gambling Moves Into Core Product

Ontario’s AGCO Registrar’s Standards require operators to implement self-exclusion, deposit limits, player oversight, and problem gambling prevention measures. Those requirements have deepened since Canada legalised single-event sports betting in 2021.

A 2024 report from Greo Evidence Insights and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction found that Ontario’s open market produced a rapid increase in legal betting access and raised concerns about advertising that connects sports broadcasts to gambling. Live betting received particular attention: the report noted that in-play bets can increase gambling intensity and give bettors a stronger sense of control over outcomes.

That shifts responsible gambling from a compliance feature to an operational requirement. Deposit limits, session reminders, and behaviour analysis now sit closer to core retention systems than traditional customer support functions.

Alberta has set out an iGaming strategy, and other provinces continue to monitor Ontario’s model before they commit to similar frameworks. A larger national market will bring more revenue opportunity and more regulatory scrutiny.

TGJ Take

Canada’s regulated market now resembles mature European jurisdictions where payments, AML controls, and responsible gambling systems have become competitive requirements rather than back-office compliance tasks. Operators that still treat withdrawals and player protection as separate departments will struggle as regulators expect both systems to work together at the account level. The bigger issue for sportsbooks is margin pressure: faster payouts improve conversion, but every additional compliance layer adds operational cost. Suppliers focused on identity verification, payment orchestration, and behaviour analysis should benefit as Canadian regulation tightens.