By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · August 12, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
Ontario's regulated online poker vertical generated CA$5.2 million in operator non-adjusted gross gaming revenue in June, a 4 per cent decline month-over-month from May's CA$5.4 million and a 3.7 per cent decline year-over-year from June 2025's CA$5.4 million. iGaming Ontario released the figures on Thursday, July 30, 2026, and multiple secondary sources have since confirmed the numbers. The June figure is Ontario poker's lowest single-month revenue since early 2025 and represents an 18-month low, according to Poker Industry PRO's analysis published August 3.
The broader Ontario iGaming market grew in June by nearly every measure. Total handle reached CA$9.46 billion, up 30.3 per cent year-on-year, and total NAGGR was CA$400.6 million, up 30.6 per cent year-on-year. Online casino and sports betting each grew in absolute terms. Peer-to-peer poker, alone among the three verticals, contracted. Ontario poker's market share in June was approximately 1 per cent of both handle and revenue, the lowest reading since the market's April 2022 launch.
The Three-Month Slide From the March Record
The June number is best understood in the context of the trajectory since March. Poker revenue peaked in March 2026 at CA$8.0 million on CA$183 million of handle, both single-month all-time records. Ontario poker had spent March grinding through the peak of pre-WSOP satellite volume: WSOP Circuit Playground had run March 23 to April 7 with GGPoker Ontario running exclusive Ontario qualifiers, PokerStars Ontario had run SCOOP through late March, and Sunday tournament fields on all six operators were at their peak. Then the market inflected.
| Month | Poker handle (CAD) | Poker NAGGR (CAD) | Notable factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | $183 million | $8.0 million | All-time monthly records; SCOOP + WSOP Circuit satellite peak |
| April 2026 | $128 million | $5.3 million | Down 30% handle, down 34% revenue MoM |
| May 2026 | $134 million | $5.4 million | Slight recovery (+2% revenue MoM); PokerStars Ontario shutdown May 7 |
| June 2026 | $126 million | $5.2 million | 18-month low; FanDuel Poker Ontario relaunch June 5 |
Source: iGaming Ontario monthly market performance reports, cross-referenced with Casino.org, Sportsbook Review, and Poker Industry PRO.
Total decline from the March peak: CA$2.8 million in revenue and CA$57 million in handle over three months. Both are the sharpest three-month declines in Ontario poker since the province launched its regulated market. The proportional revenue decline of 35 per cent is roughly double the biggest previous peak-to-trough slide in the market's first four years, which was the April-to-August 2023 seasonality trough.
The PokerStars-to-FanDuel Migration
The dominant factor in the June result is the PokerStars-to-FanDuel Ontario migration. Flutter Entertainment closed the standalone PokerStars Ontario platform on May 7, 2026, after a four-year run as Ontario's dominant online poker brand. PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel launched on June 5, running on Playtech's iPoker software rather than the legacy PokerStars client that Ontario players had used since April 2022.
Three separate frictions apply. First, existing PokerStars Ontario players had to create a new FanDuel account rather than migrate their PokerStars identity. Second, the new client is Playtech iPoker rather than the familiar PokerStars software, meaning a learning curve for cash-game players and tournament grinders alike. Third, the flagship Sunday-major heritage from PokerStars, including the Sunday Million brand, was not carried over to the FanDuel product; the new marquee tournaments are called Sunday Dynasty and Sunday Shield and are new products with no accumulated player following.
Industry consensus is that a material portion of PokerStars Ontario's regular grinders have either paused activity pending the settling of the new product or migrated to competing operators. GGPoker Ontario is the likely primary beneficiary; BetMGM Poker, 888poker, PartyPoker, and Bwin will have absorbed a proportional share. The exact per-operator breakdown will not be known until iGaming Ontario publishes its Q1 fiscal 2026-27 aggregated market report in mid-to-late August, but the overall May and June poker totals suggest a loss of roughly CA$1.5 to CA$2 million in monthly Ontario poker revenue that has not been recovered by competitor uptake.
The WSOP Vegas Pull
The second factor is the annual Vegas draw. The 2026 WSOP Vegas ran May 26 through July 15 at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas, with 100 gold-bracelet events on the schedule. Canadian players routinely travel to Vegas in significant numbers during this window; 2026 produced four Canadian bracelets before the Main Event (Foxen x2, Alcindor, Negreanu 8th career), a two-Canadian Main Event final table (Mueller 3rd, Hammoud 6th), and a combined Canadian Main Event haul of US$5.5 million. Ontario players participating in Vegas events are physically outside Ontario and therefore not playing on Ontario-regulated online rooms during that stretch.
The Vegas draw is a structural feature of Ontario poker seasonality. May and June are typically the two lowest revenue months for Ontario online poker in every year since the market launched, driven principally by the WSOP Vegas overlap. In June 2025, poker generated CA$5.4 million on CA$131 million of handle; the June 2026 result of CA$5.2 million on CA$126 million is only marginally weaker year-over-year. The seasonality is real, and much of what looks like a "PokerStars migration" effect on paper is Vegas draw compounding it.
Structural Seasonality
The third factor is standard summer seasonality. Ontarians move outdoors, travel, and reduce online-gaming session frequency during May, June, and July. This is not unique to Ontario or to poker: online casino and sports betting also see June-and-July softness across the North American iGaming footprint, though at a smaller scale. Ontario iGaming Ontario's own commentary on prior June reports has explicitly acknowledged seasonality as a driver of month-over-month declines.
Ipsos data referenced by industry analysts suggests the summer seasonality effect on Ontario online poker is roughly a 5-to-8 per cent revenue decline versus the winter peak, in a normal year. In 2026, the combination of migration friction plus WSOP Vegas pull plus seasonality has amplified the seasonal effect roughly threefold.
Player Metrics Beyond Revenue
Ontario counted 1.319 million active player accounts in June, up approximately 30 per cent from a year earlier. Average revenue per active account was CA$304 for the total iGaming market, down 8 per cent from May's CA$332. That deceleration in per-account revenue is consistent with both the poker migration effect (fewer high-frequency PokerStars grinders in June) and the seasonality effect. The active-account count itself did grow, meaning the province is adding registered players faster than it is retaining revenue-generating engagement per player.
Cumulative Ontario iGaming revenue since launch, per iGaming Ontario, now exceeds CA$12.6 billion. Of that total, approximately CA$9.5 billion came from online casino, CA$2.8 billion from sports betting, and CA$259.7 million from peer-to-peer poker. Poker's cumulative market share is 2 per cent, one full percentage point below its monthly-share peak.
What the August-September Rebound Should Look Like
The current data point is a floor, not a trend. Three catalysts should meaningfully lift Ontario online poker revenue starting in August and running through September.
WSOP Super Circuit Canada satellites. The Super Circuit Canada opens August 26 at Playground Poker Kahnawake with a CA$10-million Main Event guarantee (as we previewed on August 7). GGPoker Ontario is the exclusive Ontario online qualifier partner. The satellite ladder starts at C$3 with weekly Sunday Finals awarding at least 30 Main Event seats per week worth approximately CA$150,000. Historical patterns indicate satellite windows lift the primary operator's Ontario poker handle by 30-to-45 per cent for the six-to-eight-week duration. The Super Circuit satellite window began in mid-June and will peak in the two weeks before August 26.
WSOP Online 2026 on GGPoker Ontario. The six-week online festival begins Saturday August 16 with 33 bracelets and a US$25-million Main Event guarantee (see our August 8 preview). Ontario players enter through the GGPoker Ontario ring-fenced platform. This adds a second consecutive high-volume WSOP-adjacent tournament series overlapping August 24 to September 9, when both the Super Circuit live and the WSOP Online run in parallel. Combined tournament volume will substantially exceed anything seen in Ontario since the market's launch.
FanDuel Poker Ontario stabilisation. The Playtech iPoker platform has been live since June 5. By August, initial migration friction should have resolved; the operator's tournament calendar (Sunday Dynasty, Sunday Shield) will have accumulated a small but growing following. Whether FanDuel Poker Ontario can recapture the market share PokerStars held is an open question, but the third-quarter data will begin to answer it.
A reasonable operator forecast: August 2026 Ontario poker NAGGR in the CA$6-to-6.5 million range; September 2026 in the CA$7-to-8 million range; October back within striking distance of the March peak. If these numbers do not materialise, the migration effect will have proved more structural than temporary and the market's operator-level competitive dynamics will need revisiting.
What Ontario Players Should Do
The regulatory framework has not changed, the six licensed poker operators continue to operate, and player protections continue to apply. Ontario players who paused activity during the PokerStars migration have three practical paths forward. First, test the FanDuel Poker Ontario product; existing PokerStars deposit funds required a withdrawal by June 4, but a fresh FanDuel account can be created quickly. Second, migrate to another Ontario-licensed operator; GGPoker Ontario is the market's fastest-growing platform and is running the Super Circuit and WSOP Online exclusive satellite paths for Ontario. Third, join the WSOP Online 2026 series through GGPoker Ontario at as low as C$1 for the WSOP Kick-Off Series satellites.
Ontarians experiencing gambling harm can reach ConnexOntario's free, confidential 24-hour helpline at 1-866-531-2600. The centralised BetGuard self-exclusion programme covers all 44 licensed Ontario iGaming operators through a single registration.
Coverage Plan
Coverage on this site will follow monthly Ontario poker performance reports in real time. The next data release covers July 2026 and is expected from iGaming Ontario in the last week of August. Our Ontario Poker Monthly Tracker is updated in tandem with each release. Analytical follow-ups on individual operator market share will appear as the Q1 fiscal 2026-27 aggregated report is published in mid-to-late August, and again after Q2 fiscal 2026-27 in mid-November.