Canadian provincial channelization of online gambling in 2025: a cross-provincial analysis of player and revenue channelization

There are widespread claims that most online gambling in Canada occurs on unsanctioned out-of-country sites rather than on provincial government platforms. However, these claims rely on black-box proprietary modeling and surveys with important sampling and measurement limitations. This study provides the first academic investigation of this issue and the first cross-provincial assessment of online gambling channelization in Canada. Player channelization was estimated in two ways: by comparing active registered players on provincial platforms in fiscal year 2024/25 with the number of past-year online gamblers in each province from the 2025 Rapid Response Gambling Module of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), and through a weighted national online panel survey of 12,970 adults that assessed patronization by gambling format. Expenditure channelization was also estimated from weighted self-reported spending in the panel survey. Results showed strong rank-order agreement across methods, with relatively high channelization in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and the Atlantic Provinces, and lower channelization in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Channelization was highest for lotteries, instant lotteries, and bingo, and lowest for casino table games, sports betting, and other niche online gambling formats. Overall, channelization varied by province and gambling format and was higher in some provinces than prior estimates have suggested.