Canada’s fastest-growing gambling formats not legally gambling, new CasinoCanada research find
The online formats drawing Canada’s youngest players are growing fastest in the space Canada’s gambling laws do not reach, according to new research from CasinoCanada.com. It finds a framework built for casinos and sportsbooks facing a younger, more casual gaming culture it was never designed for.
Everything turns on one test. Under Section 206 of the Criminal Code, an activity is gambling if prize, chance and consideration are all present; remove any one and it falls outside. Canadian courts have rejected the “predominance” test used elsewhere, so any element of chance is enough – but a product with no chance, or no money, is not gambling at all.
The three formats land differently. Ontario’s AGCO treats fantasy sports as sports betting, so operators serving Ontario players must be licensed; elsewhere, DFS sits where it did in 2015, when a Canadian Gaming Association legal opinion concluded it was not pure skill – never tested in court.
Social casino games use virtual credits, so nothing of monetary value changes hands: legal and unregulated nationwide, in a sector Research And Markets values at $10.08 billion in 2026. Prediction markets are classified as financial derivatives under securities law.
The audience is the one regulated operators are chasing: a November 2025 report by Greo Evidence Insights, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and Mental Health Research Canada found roughly one in three Canadians aged 18 to 29 gambled online last year, while separate research (Kim et al., 2017) found 62% of online gamblers started on social casino games. A July 2026 survey by The Logic found almost 58% oppose legalising prediction markets.
Eugene Ravdin, head of PR at CasinoCanada, said: “Ontario and Alberta answer the question they were built to answer – how you license and tax a casino-style operator safely. That part works.
“The harder question is a fantasy contest, a free-to-play slots app or an event contract. None of it triggers provincial oversight, and all of it reaches the same young audience licensed operators reach through far tighter channels. The UK treats tradeable in-game items as a currency; Australia age-gates by classification. Canada has one lever: license it, or leave it alone.”
The full research article can be read here: https://casinocanada.com/blog/when-is-gambling-not-gambling-canadas-stance-on-fantasy-sports-and-prediction-markets/