The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has joined the first Illegal Gambling Awareness Week organised by the International Association of Gaming Regulators, a global campaign that runs from Monday, November 9, to Friday, November 13. The centrepiece is a free website, checkbeforeyouplay.org, that lets a player enter a gambling site’s address and see whether it is licensed where the player lives. For Ontario’s online poker players, the campaign restates a distinction that matters more in poker than in most products: the regulated rooms are a short list, and the offshore alternatives are easy to find.
The AGCO announced its participation in a statement distributed through CNW on November 9. The regulator said the campaign responds to “the risks and deceptive nature of unregulated gambling websites and apps,” and described itself as a member of the association, known as IAGR, which brings together gaming regulators from around the world.
What the Tool Does
According to the release, users of checkbeforeyouplay.org type in a site’s URL and receive a result based on “regulatory records and other verified, publicly available sources.” The tool returns an answer specific to the user’s location, because, as IAGR put it, “a site may be authorized in one place but not another.” The campaign also includes consumer advertising meant to show how unlicensed operators “can appear familiar and entertaining while offering none of the safeguards” of licensed sites, iGamify News reported.
Brian Krolicki, IAGR’s president, said illegal sites are “increasing in number, becoming more sophisticated, more visible, and making it harder for consumers to distinguish them from legitimate operators.” Kevin Mullally, the association’s chief executive, put the problem in terms of brand recognition. “People frequently mistake familiarity for trust,” he said, adding that some illegal operators build sites “to appear familiar and credible with the intention of purposefully deceiving gamblers.”
Dr. Karin Schnarr, the AGCO’s chief executive and registrar, said sites operating outside Ontario’s framework “may offer none of that protection, and they can look just as legitimate,” and that “Ontarians deserve to know who they’re dealing with before they place a bet.”
OntarioPoker.com has not tested the checker’s results against the provincial register, and the release does not say how often its records are refreshed. The AGCO’s statement does not announce any new enforcement measure, penalty or blocking power. The campaign is about awareness, not new rules.
Why It Matters for Poker
Ontario already publishes its own answer to the question the tool asks. iGaming Ontario’s directory of regulated sites, listed as accurate on November 6, shows 48 operators running 83 gaming websites. Six of them carry a poker product: 888poker, BetMGM Poker, bwin, FanDuel Poker, home of PokerStars in Ontario, GGPoker and partypoker. Any other poker room taking real-money play from someone in the province is operating outside the framework.
Poker is unusually exposed to that gap. Offshore rooms compete with the licensed ones on field size, game selection and promotions, and poker brands are often recognised across borders. That is the case Mullally described: a name a player knows, offered by an entity that may not be licensed in Ontario. The same brand can be legal in one market and unlicensed in the next, and the tool asks for a sitewhich is why the tool checks the specific site address rather than the brand name.rsquo;s address, not its brand name.
The regulated market has been winning that contest by the regulators’ own measure. An Ipsos survey commissioned by the AGCO and iGaming Ontario, which we covered in May, found that 91.1 per cent of recent Ontario online gamblers had used a licensed site, up from 83.7 per cent a year earlier, iGaming Today reported. The other 8.9 per cent played only on unregulated sites. The survey did not break out poker, so it is not known whether card players sit above or below the average.
What Players Give Up Offshore
The practical cost of an unlicensed room falls largely on the player. The AGCO’s standards cover responsible-gambling tools, the protection of personal information, game integrity and anti-money-laundering controls. An unlicensed site answers to none of them. A dispute over a frozen balance or a disputed hand cannot be brought to the AGCO, and IAGR warned that users of such sites may be left “without recourse or dispute resolution.”
Self-exclusion is a further point. BetGuard, the province’s centralised self-exclusion program launched in May, applies to regulated operators. A player who has excluded through it, and who then signs up at an offshore room, is outside its reach. Our guide to whether online poker is legal in Ontario sets out how the licensing system works, and our self-exclusion resources page lists the tools available now.
Reporting draws on the AGCO statement distributed by CNW on November 9, 2026, iGamify News, iGaming Ontario’s regulated market directory, iGaming Today’s report on the 2026 Ipsos channelization study, and prior OntarioPoker.com coverage. OntarioPoker.com has not independently tested checkbeforeyouplay.org. The illustration is AI-generated for editorial purposes. Online poker in Ontario is limited to players aged 19 or over who are physically located in the province. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day from ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600.