Ontario iGaming Sets All-Time Handle Record at CAD $9.59 Billion in March 2026 — Casino Now Drives 82% of Revenue

Ontario Breaks Its Own Handle Record in March — Casino Continues to Dominate

iGaming Ontario has published its March 2026 market performance data, showing the province's regulated online gambling market achieved its highest-ever monthly handle at CAD $9.59 billion — surpassing the previous record of $9.52 billion set in January 2026.

What Happened

March 2026 saw combined iGaming handle of $9.59 billion across all licensed operators, with non-adjusted gross gaming revenue of $388.1 million — a 31.1% increase from $296.1 million in March 2025. Online casino was the dominant driver: $8.33 billion in casino handle (+25.8% YoY) generated $318.5 million in casino revenue (+31.8%), representing 82% of all operator revenue for the month. Sports betting handle contracted to $1.08 billion, down from $1.186 billion a year earlier — a 9% decline in a month that included the NCAA March Madness tournament. Peer-to-peer poker set its own all-time monthly record at $183 million in handle, generating $8.0 million in revenue. Active player accounts reached 1.235 million, a 16.4% year-on-year gain.

Why It Matters

Ontario's March data provides the clearest illustration yet of the structural divergence between online casino and sports betting performance in regulated North American markets. Casino handle growing 25.8% while sports betting handle contracts 9% in the same month — with March Madness as the sportsbook's strongest seasonal catalyst — suggests a deeper shift in player behaviour rather than a one-month anomaly. The iGaming Ontario data is also directly relevant to Alberta's July 2026 market launch: if Ontario generates $388M in monthly revenue four years after its 2022 opening, Alberta's year-one market projections need to be calibrated against a market that has already demonstrated what Canadian iGaming economics look like at scale.

Industry Context

Ontario's market launched in April 2022 with 22 operators and has expanded to 45 licensed operators (following PokerStars' May 7 consolidation into FanDuel). The market's consistent record-setting monthly performance demonstrates the durability of demand in a well-regulated, competitively structured provincial iGaming framework — a model that Alberta and other Canadian provinces are watching closely as they evaluate their own market opening structures.