Online gambling in Québec, as it stands

Loto-Québec runs online casino games on its own site, lotoquebec.com. It also runs 4 casinos, 2 gaming halls and 2 hotels. To play online, a player must be 18 or older, live in Québec and be physically in Québec. The site checks each player's location.

Québec's Ministry of Finance set out its view in a regulatory impact analysis from about 2016. Apart from Loto-Québec's site, it wrote, all online gaming sites are illegal in Québec. Québec's 2016 law went further: it required internet providers to block online gambling sites not authorized by Loto-Québec. The Superior Court struck it down on July 18, 2018.

Unlike Ontario, Québec has no licensing regime for private online casino operators. Nor is there any list of authorized private sites.

The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (KGC) licenses online casinos within and from Kahnawà:ke. A KGC licence is not a Québec authorization. Kahnawà:ke says it regulates gaming within its boundaries independently, without provincial or federal involvement. Loto-Québec said in 2019 that only provincial governments may offer games of chance. The two positions remain unresolved.

Playground, a KGC-licensed venue in Kahnawà:ke, does not operate an online gaming site. It says ads or sites claiming otherwise are fraudulent. The KGC made the same point in September 2023, warning that unauthorized Facebook ads falsely claimed Playground offers online gaming. The venue itself is a building at 1500 Route 138, not a website.

Only the home page of this site carries paid links, each marked Ad. There are three: one in the menu, one just below the first screen and one near the end of the page. All lead to the same online casino partner, and inner pages carry none. The site earns a commission, and the partner can change.

That partner is a private online casino. It is not lotoquebec.com, and it is not run or licensed by Québec. Nor is it connected with Loto-Québec, Playground, the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission or any venue in this guide. Loto-Québec self-exclusion and the protections of lotoquebec.com do not apply there. A self-exclusion from Loto-Québec venues blocks the lotoquebec.com account, but it does not reach this partner.