Ontarians worried about their wagering can now ban themselves from every provincially regulated online sports betting and casino gambling site in one fell swoop.
BetGuard, a centralized self-exclusion tool provided by iGaming Ontario, officially launched Thursday morning.
- Ontario has officially launched BetGuard, a new tool that lets people simultaneously self-exclude from all provincially regulated online gambling sites.
- The system blocks access to gambling accounts, prevents account creation, and stops marketing messages from operators.
- Officials and industry leaders say the tool improves consumer protection and makes it easier for people to seek help with problem gambling.
If they so choose, Ontarians can now visit the BetGuard website to set up their accounts, confirm their identities, and exclude themselves from provincially regulated online gambling sites for extended periods.
The process takes approximately five minutes to complete and is available in both English and French.
Once someone has self-excluded, they will be blocked from accessing their existing online gambling accounts and from creating new ones. Operators must also stop sending any marketing materials to self-excluded bettors.
“BetGuard is designed with one simple principle in mind: If you need to take a break from the entire regulated iGaming market, you can,” iGaming Ontario CEO Joseph Hillier said in a statement. “Player choice is key to the sustainability of our market, and that includes the choice to opt out.”
BetGuard’s launch comes as Ontario continues to run one of the most competitive markets for online gambling in North America. Canada's most populous province has more than 40 authorized operators offering more than 70 sports betting, casino gambling, and poker sites.
Billions have been bet with Ontario-regulated operators, and the regulated market returned approximately $262 million in tax revenue to the province for the fiscal year that ended March 31.
Make the safer choice and play on sites offered by legal and regulated Operators in Ontario. Look for the iGaming Ontario logo, so you can #PlayWithConfidence. pic.twitter.com/o3UqL27P6i
— iGaming Ontario (@iGamingOntario) April 12, 2023
Ontario’s government has also spent more than $420 million on various gambling-related education and awareness programs, as well as responsible gambling initiatives, since 2018, a press release said.
“The Ontario government is committed to responsible gambling,” Ontario Tourism, Culture, and Gaming Minister Stan Cho said in a statement Thursday. “As online gaming continues to grow in popularity, the launch of BetGuard is an important step forward in helping people play safely and responsibly across more than 75 regulated sites.”
While Ontario sports betting operators are required to have their own self-exclusion tools, a player who bans themselves from one site could still log on to another and keep gambling. BetGuard restricts players from all provincially regulated sites simultaneously, preventing those personal end-runs.
'A much better process'
BetGuard's launch follows a recently released study that found the number of calls to Ontario's gambling helpline increased following Canada's legalization of single-game sports betting and the province's opening of a regulated iGaming market.
Nerin Kaur, executive director of ConnexOntario (a gambling helpline and services information provider), said during a media briefing this week that some individuals contacting them are on 10 different gambling apps and need coaching to self-exclude from each one.
“Having BetGuard allows our team to educate the individual and help them through the process,” Kaur said. “And the individual will only have to self-exclude one time, so the amount of willpower it takes for the individual decreases, and it's a much better process in terms of help-seeking behaviour or recovery.”
There would be “no need to navigate dozens of platforms or manage different self-exclusion processes or accounts across different iGaming websites,” Hillier said during the briefing.
“In fact, you don't even need to have an iGaming account to sign up for BetGuard,” he added.
iGaming Ontario, a provincial agency, worked for more than a year on BetGuard with DataWorks Group (formerly IXUP), Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), and Ontario-regulated operators. The tool is modeled after Australia’s BetStop program.
Given the sensitive nature of self-exclusion, information a person provides to BetGuard will remain with BetGuard, Hillier said. Operators will not hand over their self-exclusion lists, and BetGuard won’t either.
Rather, using APIs, operators will be able to perform real-time checks to see if someone has signed up for self-exclusion and then block any logins or marketing efforts.
iGaming Ontario Chair Heidi Reinhart says they hope to have a timing-related announcement soon for their planned centralized self-exclusion system. Ontario now has 50 private-sector operators, plus OLG, and wants to let players self-exclude from all at once.
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) June 18, 2025
The new self-exclusion tool also has the backing of the gambling industry.
Operators will be required to promote the tool alongside their own responsible gambling mechanisms. However, centralized self-exclusion is something the industry welcomes anyway.
“It has been something the industry has been long looking and waiting for, and we are grateful, because this really delivers on the promise of regulated gaming,” said Paul Burns, CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, during this week’s briefing. “This is a real demonstration of what that means in terms of consumer protection.”
Ontario’s BetGuard is the first tool of its kind to launch in Canada, where most other provinces permit only government-owned lottery and gaming corporations to offer online gambling.
That being said, there are plans to launch a competitive Alberta sports betting and iGaming market July 13. Alberta’s government intends to have a centralized self-exclusion system in place on Day 1.
Hillier said the ultimate goal is to apply BetGuard to all forms of regulated gambling in Ontario, which would mean brick-and-mortar casinos, charitable gaming, and horse racing as well. There are some legal and technical challenges there (wagering on horse racing being federally regulated, for instance), but the iGO CEO said it is “in the plan.”
“It's really a matter of time and technical complexity,” Hillier added.
