By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · May 6, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
PokerStars Ontario will stop accepting poker, casino, and sports-betting wagers on its current platform as of May 7, the operator confirmed on its official X channel on Tuesday evening. The announcement ends two months of uncertainty around the Ontario leg of parent Flutter Entertainment's PokerStars on FanDuel migration, and brings the province closer to the new unified client that already went live in the US tri-state market on April 1.
The confirmation also clarifies what had been a significant open question for Ontario players: what happens to existing accounts. The operator said that existing PokerStars Ontario accounts will not migrate automatically to the new FanDuel-branded client. Players will have to create new accounts once the replacement launches. Customers who already hold FanDuel Ontario accounts, by contrast, will be able to log in to the new poker client with their existing credentials and will only need to choose a screen name.
What Happens on May 7
At some point on Thursday, the poker, casino, and sports-betting products on the current PokerStars Ontario platform will close to new wagers. The operator described the period that follows as a "short transition" during which no games will be available on either the old or the new platform. Pokerfuse, which published the first detailed report of the announcement on Tuesday, noted that industry expectation is for the transition to last days rather than weeks, though no specific re-open date has been published.
Players with funds on PokerStars Ontario on May 7 will retain access to their account to request a withdrawal until June 4. After that date, any remaining balance will be returned by paper cheque to the registered mailing address on file. The operator did not publish specific guidance on mid-series or mid-tournament fund treatment, which points to an orderly scheduled close timed to follow the completion of the PokerStars Mystery Bounty Series on the dot-com client that wrapped on May 4.
Accounts Do Not Migrate
The biggest practical wrinkle for Ontario players is the account-reset policy. Existing PokerStars Ontario customers will need to register fresh on the new PokerStars on FanDuel Ontario client when it opens, which means rerunning the KYC process, selecting a new screen name if the previous handle is unavailable, and re-linking a deposit method. Players with active FanDuel Ontario accounts, from the operator's existing casino or sportsbook product in the province, will log into the new poker platform with their current credentials and proceed directly to screen-name selection.
The mechanic favours players who already have a FanDuel Ontario account. It is a modest disadvantage for PokerStars-only customers, who face a one-time re-onboarding, but it is consistent with the way the same migration played out in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania on April 1, where account merging across the two historically separate Flutter brands was also manual rather than automatic.
The Open Question: When
What the Tuesday announcement did not include is a go-live date for PokerStars on FanDuel Ontario. The operator committed only to a "short transition period" and did not publish an expected re-open window. The April 15 Pokerfuse forecast had pointed to May 6 as the target; our own reporting on May 5 noted that no official launch date had been confirmed. Now we have a shutdown date but still not a launch date.
The most plausible explanation is that the operator scheduled the shutdown before regulatory sign-off was fully complete. The AGCO change-order approval for any Ontario platform migration is a standing requirement and is not typically announced in advance by either the regulator or the operator. A re-open inside the first two weeks of May remains possible; a re-open closer to the end of the month or into early June is equally consistent with the evidence available.
The Competitive Picture
The shutdown lands in the middle of GGPoker Ontario's C$8 million GG Ontario Festival, which opened on May 3 and runs to June 9. GGPoker Ontario is already the largest peer-to-peer poker operator in the province by traffic, and the combination of a record local festival and a temporarily dark PokerStars Ontario will further concentrate Ontario player attention on the operator. 888poker Ontario and the shared MGM-Entain network, branded as BetMGM Poker, PartyPoker Ontario, and Bwin Ontario, also stand to pick up temporary volume from PokerStars customers unable to play on their usual client.
For the PokerStars Ontario customer base itself, the two-to-four-week gap is essentially forced time off from that operator's product, with three credible alternatives available elsewhere in the regulated market. Players concerned about the account-re-creation process can consult the operator's published instructions on the X post and the provincial responsible-gambling resources available through ConnexOntario during any unplanned break from play.
Outlook
For Ontario players, Wednesday is the last full day of the current PokerStars Ontario client. The more important date is the unannounced one: when the new PokerStars on FanDuel Ontario goes live. The rest of the migration has followed the US tri-state playbook closely, so the Ontario re-open is likely to look similar to the April 1 US event: a clean opening with the unified Flutter wallet available from day one, a simultaneous casino and poker product, and a wave of welcome-bonus messaging aimed at both existing FanDuel Ontario customers and new signups.
Until then, the Ontario online poker market runs on five of its six regulated rooms. The cashout deadline, June 4, is the one hard date every PokerStars Ontario customer needs to remember.