iGaming Payment Processing in Canada

Under section 207 of the Criminal Code, gambling is conducted and managed by the provinces. Each province decides whether private operators may take part.

• Ontario: private operators registered with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) under an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario, alongside the provincial lottery corporation, OLG.
• Alberta: private operators registered with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) under an agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation, alongside the province's own PlayAlberta.
• British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan: the provincial lottery corporations through PlayNow.com. Saskatchewan joined on 3 November 2022.
• Quebec: Loto-Québec's online site only.
• New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador: Atlantic Lottery only.

Ontario opened its regulated market on 4 April 2022. In July 2026, players wagered C$9.88 billion and operators earned C$413.6 million in gaming revenue, according to iGaming Ontario data, with 1.365 million active accounts. An Ipsos study for the AGCO, run in spring 2026, found that 91.1% of Ontario online gamblers used regulated sites, up from 83.7% a year earlier.

For payments, that means acquirers know the market well and the rules are settled. It also means the regulator expects payment providers to help keep unregistered operators out.

The AGCO's Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming set the payment rules. The standard numbers below are the ones acquirers and auditors refer to.

• Standard 5.69: deposits only after the player is verified, and authorised by a financial services provider. Cryptocurrency is not legal tender and shall not be accepted.
• Standard 5.70: withdrawals only to an account the player is a legal holder of.
• Standard 5.72: player funds must be clearly and appropriately managed.
• Standard 5.74: no credit from the operator, no lending to players and no referring them to credit providers. Credit cards themselves are not prohibited.
• Standard 2.23: players can set deposit and loss limits when they register.
• Standard 6.03: risk-based anti-money laundering policies, including when to find out and reasonably corroborate a player's source of funds.

The iGaming Alberta Act, introduced as Bill 48 in March 2025, created the Alberta iGaming Corporation, which runs online gaming for the province. The AGLC is the regulator: it registers operators and suppliers and sets the Standards and Requirements for Internet Gaming. Registration opened on 13 January 2026, and the market launched on 13 July 2026.

Operators pay a C$50,000 application fee and C$150,000 per site each year, and e-wallet providers register as suppliers. Unregistered operators had until 13 October 2026 to leave the market, and the province has said it will enforce through cease-and-desist letters and by working with payment processors. As in Ontario, the AGLC standards say cryptocurrency must not be accepted.

Canadian online gambling is processed under MCC 7995. Visa places card-absent gambling in Tier 1 of its Integrity Risk Program, and Mastercard requires non-face-to-face gambling merchants to be registered before processing. Your acquirer completes both registrations using your provincial registration, so the entity on the merchant agreement has to match the one the regulator registered.

A Canadian cashier usually combines cards with Interac. Interac e-Transfer, Canada's bank-to-bank transfer, is the main way players pay straight from a bank account, and businesses collect it through providers connected to Interac. Interac Online, the older online debit product that some pages still list, was retired on 31 October 2024.

Credit cards are allowed in Ontario and Alberta, since the rules ban operator credit rather than the cards themselves. Many card issuers treat gambling purchases as cash advances, with fees and interest from day one, so a share of players prefer debit cards or Interac. Settle in Canadian dollars to avoid conversion fees that hurt approval rates.

• Your AGCO registration and iGaming Ontario agreement, or your AGLC registration and Alberta iGaming Corporation agreement, held by the entity that signs.
• Which provinces you accept players from, and how geolocation blocks the rest.
• Player verification before deposits, and withdrawals only to accounts in the player's name.
• Your anti-money laundering programme and FINTRAC reporting.
• Expected volume in CAD, average deposit and the mix of cards and Interac.
• Processing history, approval rates and chargebacks from other markets.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has licensed online operators since 1999 under the law of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. Its licences are not provincial authorisations, and in May 2024 the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the Council's challenge to Ontario's iGaming model.

An operator licensed by Kahnawake or offshore should expect acquirers to exclude Ontario and Alberta from its permitted markets. Card processing for the rest of Canada depends on each acquirer's own policy, so the right match matters more here than anywhere. Be clear about which provinces you serve, and we can focus on the acquirers whose programmes fit.

• Criminal Code of Canada, section 207.
• AGCO, Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming (updated 14 May 2026); AGCO news release on the Ipsos channelization study, 21 May 2026.
• iGaming Ontario monthly market performance data, as reported by Gambling.com, 3 September 2026.
• Blakes, Alberta iGaming registration (19 January 2026) and launch date (1 April 2026); 15M, Alberta's grace period has ended (21 October 2026).
• Ontario Superior Court, Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke v. iGaming Ontario (2024).
• Interac Corp., Interac Online decommissioning notice; Interac year in review, 23 March 2026.
• Visa Integrity Risk Program; Mastercard, Security Rules and Procedures, Merchant Edition.