The chief executive officer of Ontario’s iGaming agency says helping to ensure the province’s punters are wagering within their means remains a key focus as it continues to explore additional, perhaps interprovincial partnerships to support those efforts.
- iGaming Ontario CEO Joseph Hillier says the agency is prioritizing responsible gambling to ensure players bet within their means and keep the market healthy.
- The organization is developing a centralized self-exclusion system that would allow bettors to ban themselves from all iGaming sites in Ontario at once.
- iGaming Ontario is also exploring RG-related partnerships, including with Alberta as the western province prepares to launch its own regulated market.
Joseph Hillier, president and CEO of iGaming Ontario (iGO), spoke with Covers last week following the conclusion of a Canada-focused panel at NEXT.io’s New York Summit.
That panel touched on prediction markets (as did basically every other panel during the conference), but it also touched on responsible gambling and the still-rampant presence of “grey” and “black” market operators in Canada.
Hillier, who took the CEO job last September, told Covers the phrase he has taken to using is “healthy players mean a healthy market.”
“And I think that's a message we heard pretty resoundingly here as well,” Hillier said. “So I think it validates some of that focus.”
Responsible gambling concerns heated up again recently in Ontario, which is the only Canadian province at the moment to license and regulate multiple private-sector operators of online sports betting and casino gambling sites.
Canada's restrictions on offering short-term "binary options" are an obstacle. So is a huge "grey" market for online gambling, which offers a lot of stuff on which to bet. Whether this blocks U.S.-based (or perhaps "U.S.-style") prediction markets forever is the big question. https://t.co/fCU9hpnxGV
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) March 13, 2026
The Ontario model has found success in moving unregulated activity into a provincially regulated market. Still, a recent Canadian Medical Association Journal study found that expansion and privatization of online gambling in Ontario coincided with "marked increases" in gambling-related calls to the province's helpline, especially among young men.
Pillars, partnerships
Hillier told Covers he sees “two key pillars of focus” for his agency. One is the commercial relationships with Ontario sports betting and iGaming operators, as it is with iGO that operators sign contracts outlining their responsibilities, including a commitment to spend on RG-related efforts.
The other pillar, though, is RG itself, Hillier said. One of the main things iGO is working on at the moment is rolling out a centralized self-exclusion system that will allow bettors to ban themselves from the province’s 80-plus iGaming sites simultaneously.
“I think we've heard that discussed throughout the conference as a real, critical tool for responsible gaming to address some of those folks who are in crisis and need to take a break,” Hillier said.
The iGO CEO said the agency remains excited about that project and is hoping to have more news about it soon. In the meantime, iGO is having “constant conversations” with operators and the agency's other partners, such as the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the provincial government, and the Responsible Gambling Council.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account“We're looking to continue to collaborate,” Hillier said. “And that was one of the other key themes that I found came out here is measuring outcomes, but also collaborating in the sector to determine what the best tools are in place to really help players. And so that's going to continue to be a focus for us.”
Look West
Partnership possibilities inside Canada are becoming more interesting these days. While Ontario is still the only province with a competitive iGaming market, having launched that market back in 2022, Alberta is working toward the launch of a similar regulatory structure. Alberta's iGaming market will include a lot of the same names already doing business in Ontario.
Hillier said iGO has spoken with officials in Alberta, offering to share lessons learned and best practices seen in Ontario thus far.
Pooling RG resources is another potential opportunity, with Alberta planning to have centralized self-exclusion in place when its regulated iGaming market goes live.
Canadian Gaming Association President and CEO Paul Burns, for instance, said during the NEXT Canada panel that there is an “achievable path” for shared self-exclusion between the two provinces, although it may take some time.
iGO’s Hillier sees things similarly.
“I think where those opportunities present themselves, absolutely, we're going to engage in that,” Hillier said. “I think, right now, Alberta is still finalizing its market terms and getting to their own launch. And so we'll take our signals from them in terms of when we can have those conversations. But all of those things are certainly very much on our radar.”
