Channelization is the share of gambling that happens on regulated sites rather than offshore ones. It’s the number Ontario uses to judge whether its regulated market is working, and it’s quoted more often than almost any other figure about it.
The latest official figure, released in May 2026, says 91.1% of Ontarians who gambled online used a regulated site. Before the market opened in 2022, the province estimated that about 70% of online gambling was happening on unregulated sites. That looks like a complete turnaround, but as is often the case with statistics, there is more than one way to measure it, resulting in other estimates being lower.
What does channelization measure?
Determining what channelization measures depends on who’s measuring and what they are measuring. There are two basic approaches that use different variables, and they answer different questions:
- Share of players: Out of everyone who gambled online, how many used a regulated site? This is what Ontario’s official survey measures.
- Share of money: Out of all the money spent gambling online, how much went to regulated sites? This is what commercial data firms try to estimate.
A market can score well on one and worse on the other. If most people use regulated sites but the biggest spenders also play offshore, the share of players looks better than the share of money.
Where the official figure comes from
The AGCO and iGaming Ontario (iGO) jointly commission Ipsos to run an online survey each year. About 2,000 Ontarians aged 19 and older are asked which sites they’ve gambled on in the past three months, and Ipsos sorts each answer into regulated or unregulated. The margin of error is about 2.2 percentage points.
| Survey year | Used a regulated site | Used only unregulated sites |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 85.3% | 14.7% |
| 2024 | 86.4% | 13.6% |
| 2025 | 83.7% | 16.3% |
| 2026 | 91.1% | 8.9% |
Sources: the AGCO’s published Ipsos reports for 2025 and 2026.
iGO said the dip in 2025 was within the margin of error. The 2026 jump is much bigger, and neither the AGCO nor iGO has said what caused it.
Two things are worth knowing about this survey. The regulator and the market operator pay for it, and both report against a target of 90% by 2026-27, so it isn’t fully independent. Also, iGO’s own annual reports say it only counts which sites people use, not how much money or time they spend on them.
“Regulated” includes people who also play offshore
A player counts as regulated if they used at least one regulated site, even if they also used offshore ones. In 2025, 20.2% of the regulated group had played on both. Add them to those who used only unregulated sites, and roughly a third of Ontario’s online gamblers used an offshore site in the previous three months. The 2026 report hasn’t published this mixed figure.
Why the figures don’t agree
- Players or money: The official survey counts people. Commercial estimates try to count money, but they don’t share their methods.
- What’s included: Some figures count OLG’s own site as regulated, and some leave it out. Some cover only casino and sports betting.
- Sports betting is behind: In Williams’ data, sports betting had the lowest share of regulated play, about 72% by spending.
- People don’t always know: Offshore sites can look exactly like regulated ones, and surveys rely on people remembering and reporting accurately. Williams’ slides warn that survey-based figures “may be artificially high” for that reason.
What “offshore” means in Ontario
An offshore site is any site taking Ontario players without registering with the AGCO and signing an agreement with iGO. They’re often called the grey market because they hold a license somewhere else, but they aren’t permitted in Ontario. There’s no list of them to check, which is why the iGO list of regulated sites is the one that matters.
Enforcement mostly happens around the edges. In May 2025, the AGCO asked media outlets to stop carrying ads for unregulated sites. In May 2026, it fined two game suppliers $40,000 each because their games were playable on unregulated sites open to Ontarians.
What it means for you
On an offshore site, none of Ontario’s protections apply. You can’t take a complaint to the AGCO, BetGuard self-exclusion doesn’t reach it, and there’s no Ontario rule on how quickly it has to pay you. Checking the iGO list before you sign up takes a minute.
See how big the regulated side with Ontario iGaming after four years and where Ontario’s gambling revenue goes.
You must be 19 or older to gamble online in Ontario. If gambling has stopped being entertainment, ConnexOntario is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day.