Canada’s Supreme Court heard arguments October 7 on Ontario’s plan to let online players compete with people outside Canada, and reserved its judgment. The appeal puts a proposed expansion of cross-border gambling before the country’s highest court, with provincial lottery corporations challenging Ontario’s interpretation of the Criminal Code.
The proposal would connect Ontario players and their wagers with overseas player pools. Ontario argues that larger pools would make its regulated games more attractive. It argues that its current limited pools mean fewer poker tables, fewer game choices and smaller betting pools. It presents international play as a way to make its regulated offering more attractive.
Under Ontario’s published model, players elsewhere in Canada could not participate without an agreement involving their province or territory. Ontario players would access games through Ontario sites; players abroad would use international sites. Operators would not act as iGaming Ontario’s agents in running those international sites.
Dispute
The legal question is over section 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code. It permits provincial governments to conduct and manage lottery schemes within their province, or jointly with another province, in accordance with provincial legislation. The dispute is whether Ontario can allow its players to compete against players in other countries while still meeting the law’s requirement that it conduct and manage the game within Ontario. “Ontario’s conduct and management of the lottery scheme in this province would not change,” Ontario wrote in its Supreme Court filing.
“Ontario’s proposed scheme flouts the Criminal Code,” Atlantic Lottery, BCLC and Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries wrote in their February 2026 filing. They argue that a shared game involving Ontario and overseas players forms a single cross-border lottery scheme. They argue Ontario cannot bring that entire game within the provincial exemption simply by controlling the Ontario portion.
The appellants also question Ontario’s ability to protect players in that arrangement. In a later filing, they said Ontario had not explained “how it can offer regulatory protection to its players when it pairs them with gamblers beyond the reach of Ontario’s laws.
The immediate result is therefore a pending legal decision.