iGaming Ontario reports CA$9.7 billion August betting handle, up 19.7% year-on-year

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The Backstory

Ontario’s summer surge builds on a record July

Ontario’s regulated online gambling market entered August with unusual momentum. The province had just posted its highest monthly handle since launching competitive igaming in April 2022, with total cash wagers reaching CA$9.9 billion in July. That performance set the benchmark for the latest month: August’s CA$9.7 billion handle was slightly lower sequentially but still showed the market expanding at a double-digit pace from a year earlier.

The pattern matters because it suggests the market is not relying on a single monthly spike. July’s record was supported by broad growth across casino and sports betting, while August held close to that level even as active player accounts fell from the prior month. In other words, wagering volume has remained elevated despite some month-to-month volatility in player activity.

The July report also highlighted how high the ceiling has become for the province. iGaming Ontario said July handle reached CA$9.9 billion, the highest recorded since legalization, while non-adjusted gross gaming revenue, or NAGGR, climbed to CA$414 million. August revenue of CA$396 million was lower than July but still marked a strong year-over-year gain, keeping the province near the upper end of its post-launch performance range.

Casino play keeps reshaping the market

The most important through line in Ontario’s recent numbers is the dominance of online casino. Casino games have consistently accounted for the overwhelming majority of wagers and revenue, and that concentration intensified over the summer. In August, casino represented more than 90% of total cash wagers and 84.5% of NAGGR, the strongest signal yet that slots, table games and live dealer products are the primary engines of the province’s regulated model.

That shift did not emerge suddenly. In May, the province’s online casino segment set records for both handle and revenue. Operators generated CA$8.37 billion in casino wagers, and casino NAGGR reached CA$326.4 million, beating a previous high from December 2025. The broader market still came in below the all-time handle set in March, but May showed that casino growth could offset softer sports betting activity. The report on Ontario’s new iCasino handle and revenue records in May underscored how casino was becoming less of a vertical and more of the market’s center of gravity.

June reinforced the same direction. Total cash wagers were CA$9.5 billion, with casino making up 88% of the market. By July, casino wagers were CA$8.8 billion and still represented 89% of the total. August matched July’s CA$8.8 billion in casino wagers but generated higher casino revenue than July, at CA$336 million. That indicates not only sustained player engagement but also improved revenue conversion in the category that matters most to operators and the province.

Sports betting shows growth but more volatility

Sports betting has remained Ontario’s second-largest online gambling segment, but its recent performance has been less consistent than casino. Sports wagering rose year-over-year in August to CA$843 million, yet sports NAGGR fell 10% from the same month a year earlier to CA$54 million. That divergence between handle and revenue points to margin pressure, a more favorable month for bettors or both.

The contrast with July is notable. The month before, sports betting handle rose 44.2% from a year earlier to CA$992 million, while sports NAGGR climbed 47.2% to CA$78 million. June had also been stronger, with CA$1 billion in wagers and CA$79 million in sports betting NAGGR. Those figures, included in the report that Ontario recorded CA$9.5 billion in wagers for June, showed a segment benefiting from both volume and revenue growth.

August, by comparison, demonstrates the inherent lumpiness of sports betting. Seasonal sports calendars, hold rates and promotional strategy can have an outsized effect on monthly results. While the vertical still adds scale and product diversity to Ontario’s regulated framework, its revenue contribution has not matched the steadier upward trajectory of online casino. That difference is one reason casino’s share of total NAGGR rose further in August even as sports betting handle remained sizable.

Poker’s shrinking share points to a mature niche

Peer-to-peer poker continues to occupy a small and declining part of Ontario’s online gambling market. In August, poker accounted for 1.2% of total wagers and 1.4% of NAGGR. Wagers fell 19.2% from a year earlier to CA$122 million, while revenue declined 17.6% to CA$5.6 million.

The annual decline follows a pattern seen throughout the prior months. May poker wagers were down 7% year-over-year, even though they improved from April. June wagers slipped 3.8% from the prior year, and July fell 16.5%. Revenue followed a similar path, remaining near CA$5 million to CA$6 million a month but failing to keep pace with the broader market.

The numbers suggest poker is not disappearing, but its relative importance is shrinking as casino and sports betting expand more quickly. Poker’s network effects also make it harder to scale in a ring-fenced provincial market than casino games, which operators can refresh rapidly with new titles, live dealer formats and promotions. For regulators and operators, poker remains part of a full product suite, but not a major driver of Ontario’s growth story.

Reporting changes made the trend easier to see

The current level of detail in Ontario’s monthly figures is itself a recent development. iGaming Ontario previously reported market performance quarterly, limiting visibility into swings by product category and month. The move to monthly reporting gave operators, policymakers and competitors a clearer view of how Canada’s largest regulated online gambling market was evolving.

When iGaming Ontario announced that it was switching to monthly market performance reports as revenue grew, it also released fiscal third-quarter 2024-25 data showing CA$22.7 billion in wagers and CA$825.8 million in gaming revenue. Casino already dominated that quarter, representing 83% of wagers and 78% of revenue. Betting represented 15% of wagers and 20% of revenue, while poker accounted for less than 2% of each.

Those proportions foreshadowed the market now visible in the August figures, with casino becoming even more dominant and poker receding. Monthly reporting has also made sequential comparisons more meaningful. The July-to-August decline in active accounts, for example, is easier to evaluate against higher average revenue per account and sustained total wagering. That mix suggests August was not a weakening month so much as a consolidation after July’s peak.

Regulatory scrutiny rises with the market’s scale

Ontario’s growth has increased the stakes for regulators. The market generated CA$82.7 billion in wagers and CA$3.2 billion in gross gaming revenue during its third year of operation, making it a reference point for other Canadian provinces considering competitive online gambling. Alberta has been preparing to become the second province with regulated igaming, with officials signaling they would study Ontario’s approach while building their own framework.

Scale also brings enforcement pressure. As the July report noted, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario fined Booming Games CA$70,000 for using a prohibited auto-play feature. That action illustrated how the province is pairing market expansion with tighter oversight of game design, responsible gambling rules and operator conduct.

The separation of iGaming Ontario from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario under new legislation also reflects the market’s maturation. The change was designed to make iGaming Ontario an independent agency and further distance it from the provincial lottery corporation. For operators, that institutional development may bring clearer governance. For consumers and policymakers, it raises the expectation that a market approaching CA$10 billion in monthly wagers will be monitored with the same sophistication it now demands commercially.