Quebec Online Casino Rules: Loto-Québec and Private-Site Claims

In Quebec, the government’s online casino is Loto-Québec’s, branded lotoquebec.com. Loto-Québec, a Québec Crown corporation, states that its site is the only 100% legal and local casino and sports betting site in Québec, and the Criminal Code allows a province to conduct and manage this kind of gaming under its own law. We found no Quebec licence for private online casinos: the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ), which issues the province’s gaming licences, lists licences for raffles, video lottery sites and gaming suppliers, not for private online casinos. Sites that say they are licensed hold a licence from somewhere else. As for players, section 207(3) of the Criminal Code makes participation in a lottery scheme that is not authorized under section 207 a summary conviction offence. We found no enforcement data, and this page is not legal advice.

What does the Criminal Code allow?

Section 207(1)(a) makes it lawful for the government of a province, alone or with another province, to conduct and manage a lottery scheme in that province under provincial law. Section 207(4)(c) says that for the charitable, fair and licensed schemes in paragraphs (1)(b) to (f), a lottery scheme does not include games operated on or through a computer, video device, slot machine or dice game. Those games are left to the province itself under paragraph (1)(a). Loto-Québec puts it in its own words: provinces can offer online games only through their official operator. That sentence is Loto-Québec’s statement, not a court ruling, but it is consistent with the statute’s text.

What is Loto-Québec’s online casino?

The name and the address. Loto-Québec’s online casino is branded lotoquebec.com. The casino page’s title reads “Online Casino, Play on lotoquebec.com”, while the page itself is served from espacejeux.com, and the casino, poker and bingo links on the lotoquebec.com portal point to espacejeux.com. If you reach espacejeux.com from Loto-Québec’s own portal, you are on Loto-Québec’s site.

What it offers. The portal links to lotteries, casino, live casino, slot machines, sports betting (Mise-o-jeu and Mise-o-jeu+), instant games, poker (OK POKER) and bingo. Its live casino publishes a rules document for each table, with limits on the public table pages: for example, roulette from 50¢ to C$10,000, blackjack from C$10 to C$5,000 at Blackjack C (EN), baccarat from C$1 to C$10,000 at Speed Baccarat A and craps from 50¢ to C$5,000.

Who can play. The online gaming pages display an 18+ age requirement.

What does the RACJ license?

The RACJ issues Quebec gaming licences such as raffle licences, licences for video lottery sites and licences for suppliers of gaming goods and services. Its site does not list a licence for private online casinos. Loto-Québec’s online games are run by the Crown corporation itself, under the Criminal Code’s provincial paragraph, not under a licence to a private company.

What about sites that say they are licensed?

Private sites aimed at Canadian players show licences from regulators such as Kahnawà:ke, Curaçao, Malta, Anjouan or Tobique. None of these is a licence issued under Quebec law.

Kahnawà:ke deserves a closer look because it is close to home. The Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission regulates interactive and land-based gaming conducted within or from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, which it describes as a sovereign jurisdiction just outside Montréal, and it publishes a list of permit holders. In an advisory notice of July 11, 2022, it said it would no longer offer Interjurisdictional Authorizations, and that existing holders keep them until they expire, without renewal. In Ontario, CBC reported that a Superior Court judge ruled against the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke’s challenge to iGaming Ontario’s framework.

Other licences. A Curaçao, Malta, Anjouan or Tobique licence comes from a regulator outside Quebec’s system. What each one publishes, and what it does and does not allow, is set out on our page about Curaçao, Anjouan and Tobique licences.

A site’s claim to be “legal in Canada” or “licensed for Canadian players” tells you which licence it holds, not that Quebec authorized it.

Is playing at an offshore site an offence for the player?

The statute’s text is short. Section 207(3) says anyone who does anything for a lottery scheme not authorized under section 207 commits an offence. Conducting or managing such a scheme can be prosecuted by indictment, with up to two years, or on summary conviction. Participating in it is listed as an offence punishable on summary conviction. That is all the text says. We did not find data on prosecutions of players in Quebec, and we do not give legal advice on how the section applies to any person.

What protections and help apply?

The tools below are Loto-Québec’s own and apply on its site. The lotoquebec.com account menu includes “Break and self-exclusion” and “Set my limits”. For help, Jeu : aide et référence, Quebec’s gambling help line, answers at 514 527-0140 in Montréal and area and 1 800 461-0140 elsewhere in Québec, free and confidential, 24 hours a day. Our responsible gambling page lists the help lines for every province.

What we could not confirm

• The durations Loto-Québec offers for breaks and self-exclusion: they are shown only after login.
• Any enforcement of section 207(3) against players in Quebec: we found no data.
• Whether the Ontario court decision on the Kahnawà:ke challenge was appealed: we did not check its appeal status.

Check a site yourself

Start with the address. If you came to it from Loto-Québec’s portal and the page says lotoquebec.com, you are on the provincial site. For any other site, find the licence it shows and note who issued it: a Kahnawà:ke permit can be checked against the Commission’s permit-holder list, and other regulators publish their own registers. Then remember what the check tells you: that the site holds that licence, not that Quebec authorized it. For how other provinces handle online casinos, see our province-by-province reference.