In brief
The Ipsos study found that 91.1 per cent of surveyed online gamblers reported using regulated sites. The share was 83.7 per cent in the previous year, which the release describes as a rise of 7.4 percentage points.
Respondents who said they gambled only on unregulated sites accounted for 8.9 per cent. That figure was 16.3 per cent in the previous year. The release presents the change as evidence that more Ontarians are choosing the regulated market.
Ontario regulated igaming includes player protections and safeguards that, according to iGaming Ontario, unregulated sites do not provide. The study measures respondents’ reported site use; it does not establish why each respondent made that choice.
What happened
Ontario regulated igaming operates as an open and competitive market. iGaming Ontario works with operators and government partners to run that market, while AGCO is named as a commissioner of the Ipsos research.
Ipsos asked respondents who said they had gambled online about the sites they used. The reported result moved toward regulated sites from the prior year, while the share reporting exclusively unregulated gambling fell.
Joseph Hillier, iGaming Ontario’s President and CEO, said the results show growing confidence in the regulated market. Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming Stan Cho said oversight, consumer protections and responsible gaming measures are helping build trust. These are officials’ interpretations of the findings, rather than conclusions attributed to Ipsos in the release.
The announcement also describes Ontario’s regulated market as prioritising player safety and choice. Its market figures cover eligible games offered under operating agreements with iGaming Ontario, rather than every form of online gambling available in the province.
What this changes for players
For Ontario players, the survey result means a larger reported share used sites inside the regulated market. iGaming Ontario says those sites carry mandatory player protections and safeguards across the market.
The release announces BetGuard, a new iGaming Ontario player support tool launched earlier that month. It does not explain what BetGuard does, who may use it, or how players access support through it.
iGaming Ontario says people who want to play in the regulated market can do so with confidence. It makes the same statement about people taking a break from online gambling, but the announcement does not describe a break process or the protections involved.
A player choosing a site may therefore confirm whether the operator participates in Ontario regulated igaming. The release supports the presence of market-wide protections, but it does not list the individual safeguards that apply to a particular operator or game.
What is known and what the source does not say
The central finding comes from respondents’ own reports of where they gambled online. Ipsos conducted the research, but the release does not provide the sample size, fieldwork dates, sampling approach, questionnaire wording, or margin of error.
The release does not publish a list of regulated sites included in the study. It also does not explain how Ipsos treated respondents who used both regulated and unregulated sites, apart from reporting the group that used only unregulated sites.
iGaming Ontario says its reported gaming revenue and wagering activity figures are unaudited and subject to adjustment. The stated market definition excludes OLG’s igaming offering and pari-mutuel wagering on horseracing.
Those exclusions limit comparisons between the announced market figures and all gambling activity in Ontario. They do not change the survey’s reported direction of travel, but they matter when defining the market being discussed.
What the RTP Index newsroom thinks
The Ipsos result is useful because it addresses where surveyed online gamblers said they played. That is more specific than a general claim that Ontario’s online gambling market is expanding.
The result should still be read as a commissioned, self-reported survey finding. Without methodology details, the release does not allow readers to judge how closely the responses represent all Ontario online gamblers or how precise the reported change is.
Ontario officials link the shift to regulation, protections, oversight, and responsible gaming measures. The supplied evidence does not test those explanations, compare individual safeguards, or show which features influenced respondents’ site choices.
The clearest conclusion is narrower: surveyed online gamblers reported greater use of regulated sites than in the prior year. The release supports that finding, while leaving important questions about survey design and player decision-making unanswered.
