On June 17, the Canadian Gaming Summit returned at what could be a pivotal moment for the national iGaming industry. Coming in, Ontario stood as Canada’s only regulated, competitive space for online casino gaming and sports betting.
Now, there’s another on the way, and figureheads of the soon-to-be regulated province will have been able to drink in copious amounts of key information from a packed Canada Gaming Summit. So, after a superbly successful event, these are some of the takeaways from the 2025 Canada Gaming Summit.
State of Play Coming into the 2025 Canada Gaming Summit
While iGaming has had a presence in Canada for several years, it wasn’t until Ontario launched the country’s first regulated and competitive online market that we could see how truly successful it could be. Even though it’s been very slow for the rest of the country to follow suit, Ontario has generated some key stats for review.
Sport betting is popular, but it doesn’t hold a candle to how well-received modern online casino games have been. Roughly 85 percent of all cash wagers in the province go to online casino games. This vertical encompasses peer-to-peer bingo, table games, live games, and especially online slots.
The most recent figures point to $6.95 billion of the record $8.06 billion in wagers last year going to the online casino games. Given the selection available, it’s not a surprise. On the leading platforms, the best online slots Canada has to offer number over 3,400, spanning all forms of themes, features, and jackpot sizes.
A Record Attendance for the Next Step Forward
At the opening of the 2025 Canada Gaming summit, the majority of provinces ran their own state-funded online gambling and lottery platforms, which is akin to the monopoly model Norway has upheld. Now, however, Alberta looks to follow in Ontario’s footsteps to introduce a competitive market by early 2026.
In preparation for this eventual doubling of the competitive Canadian iGaming market, the 2025 Canada Gaming Summit welcomed a record-setting 3,000 professionals. Some 40 percent of those in attendance held positions of key decision-making roles, while 1,000 were operator representatives and 200 come from the affiliates sector.
That incredibly strong attendance over the three-day summit, which was the 28th edition, ventured across the three-stage conference programme. On those stages, 150 industry experts shared their knowledge with audiences, covering everything from leadership to player protection, affiliations, payments, compliance, and cybersecurity.
One of the headline acts of the event came during the From Recon to Compromise: Defending Against Modern Threats in the Gaming Sector. During the panel, the fictional Contoso Casino underwent a live hack, which was aimed at demonstrating the vulnerability to surprisingly simple attacks by all organizations.
Also in attendance were 75 top-tier exhibitors, who showcased exactly what the future of online casino gaming and betting looks like. With iGaming becoming more and more prominent in Canada while facing new challenges and player preference trends, the Canadian Gaming Summit once again proved its worth to the industry.
On May 19, 2026, the rebranded SBC Summit Canada will return to what could be another record-breaking attendance.