Legal Gambling Ages in Canada

While Canada is really favorable for gamblers and operators alike, the country as a whole and each province separately have some strict requirements considering the legal gambling age to prevent the harms of underage gambling for the population. In this post, we list the gambling age in Canada for each province and discuss the nuances of gambling age rules for online and offline gambling activities.

Gambling Ages in Canada
Legal Gambling Ages by Province
Online Gambling Rules in Canada
Proof of Age Online
Rules of Gambling At Land-Based Facilities & Venues
Underage Gaming Fines
Minors Protection Policies & Teen Betting

Legal Gambling Ages by Province

Different provinces of Canada have different minimum legal gambling age limitations due to the fact that each province, regardless of the general regulations allowed by the state overall, can set its own rules for gambling activities and operators. For example, gambling as such is not illegal in Canada, but in some provinces, most gambling is illegal, and only national or provincial lottery, or bingo halls, are allowed.

Province	Legal Gambling Age
Alberta	18
British Columbia	19
Manitoba	18
New Brunswick	19
Newfoundland and Labrador	19
Nova Scotia	19
Ontario	19
Prince Edward Island	19
Quebec	18
Saskatchewan	19
Northwest Territories	19
Nunavut	19
Yukon	19

This is the reason why residents of different provinces have to be aware of the current legislation, especially if they travel around the country from time to time. The table below shows the minimum legal gambling age in Canada for each province at the time of writing this post.

Online Gambling Rules in Canada

Once the potential player reaches the legal age to gamble in Canada, they can play offline or online, or use both opportunities, depending on what’s allowed in their province.

When it comes to online gambling, it's crucial to understand the legal landscape. In most provinces, online gambling is technically illegal, but Canada still mostly exists in a "gray market" where residents face no legal consequences for playing at internationally licensed online casinos.

Most provinces still have outdated legislation that neither regulates online gambling activities adequately nor effectively blocks illegal operation and access. As a result, in most places, people can play at any casino site or other gambling platform as soon as they reach the Canadian online gambling age.

Ontario is a huge exception, however, since April 2022 when the province passed newly updated regulations and allowed effective licensing of private online casinos operated from the province or from abroad. Therefore, Ontario residents should learn the legal gambling age limits and other rules considering online gambling in Ontario from our separate post dedicated to these nuances.

Proof of Age Online

While gambling online can be available to many players within the allowed background of the gray market, that doesn’t mean that customers under legal age can register and play anonymously and enjoy all the benefits.

Online casinos, unless they are completely scammy and unsafe and unreliable, still follow the Know Your Customer policies and make the customers go through the identity verification procedures before any real gambling is available.

This happens because the governments of some Canadian provinces may turn a blind eye to the fact of offering gambling services in the gray market and making money, but violating the Minors Protection policies is a big no-no that can end up in serious consequences even for a foreign casino website. So casino sites are cautious in these terms.

When it comes to playing at reputable online casinos in Canada, age verification is a crucial step in ensuring a safe and secure gambling environment. Young people should first ask themselves how old do you have to be to gamble before they try to engage in online betting. Right during the registration process or later when the player is ready to make the first withdrawal, they are asked to provide proof of age.

This verification step is essential to confirm that the customer meets the legal age requirements for gambling. To complete the process, the newly registered customer will need to provide copies of a valid identification document such as a passport, driver's license, or ID card.
The verification process typically takes around 24 hours as the casino carefully checks and verifies the provided information.
By implementing these age verification procedures, online casinos are able to maintain a responsible gambling environment and provide a safe experience for their players - and especially for the casino itself.

Due to the fact that provinces with different gambling age limitations neighbor each other, to prevent registration of underage users on other provinces’ gambling platforms, geolocation software is used. Players wondering “what age can you gamble?” should consider these differences carefully.

For example, Ontario is located close to Manitoba and Quebec where the minimum legal gambling age is 18 but the Ontario online casinos and other gambling platforms use geolocation software to ensure their online players are within the Ontario borders so 18-year-olds from the neighboring provinces cannot play on casino sites licensed by Ontario.

On the other hand, users located within the borders of Ontario and younger than 19 will not be able to register on platforms that are available from a neighboring province, to play for real money. or even if they register, their account will eventually be blocked after identity verification.

Rules of Gambling At Land-Based Facilities & Venues

The situation with land-based facilities like casinos and different venues like sports betting events or even gambling machines in various locations is a bit simpler. In most cases, users have to show their ID to the person responsible to prove they are of casino age in Canada and they can play and make bets if they are eligible.

Legal offline activities for eligible players include:

Lottery
Scratch cards
Land-based casinos & gaming machines
Poker rooms
Bingo halls
Horse racing
Charitable gambling events
Betting on sports

Most young people ask themselves how old do you have to be to go to a casino before they try to make real money bets. However, it must be said that some locations like automatic gambling machines, video poker, or terminals that accept bets on sports do not follow this law very much and as a result, underage gambling is a problem in many provinces.

Underage Gaming Fines

The exact size of fines for people that gamble being not eligible for this, and for operators that allow underage customers to make real money bets are hard to find because the cases are rare and the size of the fine depends on many factors besides the mere fact of underage gambling.

However, people that systematically pursue underage gambling being not eligible, or mislead operators/bookmakers/platforms about their age can be fined or even imprisoned (depending on their age). On the other hand, operators (both online and offline) that allow underage gambling will face fines, blocking, and can even lose their licenses.

Minors Protection Policies & Teen Betting

Most Canadian provinces enforce the so-called Minors Protection policies that suggest a range of activities and regulations. These activities and regulations include but are not limited to:

Enforcing strict KYC procedures, age proof, identity verifications, and geolocation software usage on operators that offer gambling services remotely online
Enforcing checks on land-based facilities, operators, and venues to ensure they don’t allow underage gambling
Prevent gambling ads that target underage audiences
Stimulate Responsible Gambling policies
Inform adult gamblers about software that prevents their children from accessing their gambling accounts
Take care of gambling addiction therapy for teenagers, etc.

Recent research has shed light on the prevalence of problem gambling among young individuals in Canada.

According to the Canadian Youth Gambling Survey, a significant 41.6% of adolescents have engaged in gambling within the past three months.

Among youth who gamble online, a larger percentage scored "high" or "low-to-moderate" in terms of problem gambling severity.

Teenagers play games for real money not only in the regular understanding of betting, like making bets in casino games, on sports events, etc. Since teens play video games a lot and tend to play game apps on their smartphones, the following betting activities are popular among teenagers in Canada:

Loot boxes - these virtual "grab bags" contain undisclosed items, ranging from weapons to armor for video games, which players can acquire through gameplay or by spending real money or in-game currency. Opening these boxes introduces an element of chance, as the contents are randomly generated and their usefulness to the player is uncertain.
“Skins” betting - these are virtual “clothes” or accessories that allow players to customize the appearance of their weapons, avatars, or equipment without altering their abilities. While skins do not grant any gameplay advantages, they hold status value and rarer skins are more coveted. Teens try to win skins or exchange them from each other for other valuable items.
Social casino games - these games do not allow players to win real money as they provide users with their own virtual currency, but to acquire the initial “deposit” in this currency, players have to pay real money. Later, the in-game currency can be earned by different activities within the game, including wins through bets. Social casino games often introduce young individuals to gambling concepts at an early stage, offering them relatively favorable odds of winning, thus paving the way to inadequate gambling behaviors.

Moreover, many children and adolescents take part in unregulated gambling activities like playing cards for money with family or friends, making bets on events, or playing table games for money, even if small.

Written by

Eva Johnson

Content & Marketing

Gambling Ages in Canada