Checking a Canadian casino licence takes about two minutes. Find the operator's legal entity name on its site, open your provincial register, and search for that name. If it does not appear, the operator is not regulated in your province.
Scroll to the site footer or open the terms and conditions. Registered Canadian operators state the company name they are licensed under, which is frequently different from the brand displayed at the top of the page.
This first step is where most checks fail, because players search the brand and find nothing.
The entity name usually appears alongside a registration or licence reference. On a site operating in Ontario it will normally sit near a statement referencing iGaming Ontario.
If no company name appears anywhere on the site, stop. Every legitimate operator discloses one.
Ontario players use the iGaming Ontario operator directory. Alberta players use the Alcohol, Gaming and Cannabis Commission registrant listing. Players elsewhere should use their provincial lottery corporation's own platform, which is the only domestically regulated option.
You must be physically in the province to play, not merely resident there. Location is verified at login on registered sites.
| If you are in | Use | Regulator | Minimum age |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | iGaming Ontario operator directory | Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario | 19 |
| Alberta | Commission registrant listing | Alcohol, Gaming and Cannabis Commission | 18 |
| Any other province | Provincial lottery platform | Provincial lottery corporation | 18 or 19 |
Search the entity name. A listing normally shows the company, the brands it operates and what it is registered to offer. Confirm the brand you intend to use appears under that entity and that the offering matches what you want to play.
The final point is specific to Alberta in 2026. Around 50 operators were registered against roughly 22 live in August 2026, so a register entry does not yet guarantee availability.
Then it is not regulated in your province, whatever licence it displays. Offshore licences from other jurisdictions are genuine but give a Canadian player almost no practical recourse if something goes wrong.
Some sites display licence seals from other jurisdictions in a way that implies Canadian oversight. Those seals are not equivalent and do not confer any Canadian protection.
The absence of a provincial listing is definitive. There is no category of properly regulated Canadian operator that is missing from its own province's register.
Registrations change, particularly in Alberta during its transition period ending 13 October 2026. Re-checking annually is reasonable for an established account, and before any large deposit or if an operator changes its branding or terms.
Ontario's market is more settled, listing 48 regulated operators across 83 gaming websites as of 6 August 2026, but registrations there change too.
A brand change or a change in stated legal entity is the clearest trigger for re-checking, because it may indicate the operating company has changed.
It says nothing about payout speed, customer service quality, game selection or whether the operator suits you. Registration is a floor, not a ranking. Every registered operator meets the same baseline, and they differ considerably above it.
This is worth being clear about, because licence checking is often presented as the whole of casino selection. It is only the first filter.
Once you have a shortlist of registered operators, the remaining questions are about product and service, and those are answered by testing rather than by registers.
Searching Cadway Limited returns entries in both the iGaming Ontario operator directory and the Alberta register, the latter listed as Cadway Limited operating as Betway. The Ontario entry covers casino and sports betting on one registration.
Betway is a useful worked example of the entity name problem, because searching the brand alone in a register may not return it. Searching Cadway Limited does.
The same exercise shows why entity names matter more broadly: several other well-known Canadian casino brands are registered under Cadtree Limited rather than under their own names.
Betway's presence in both open provincial registers under one entity is unusual, and it is the specific fact this check is designed to surface. Registration alone does not make it the right choice, but it clears the floor in both markets.
What the check cannot tell you is anything about Betway's withdrawal speed or payment methods, because those are not published where they can be verified externally. The register confirms accountability, not service quality, and the scorecard below reflects that split.
Scored purely on what the licence checking process in this article can and cannot confirm.
Ontario register entry, weighted 30%, scores 9.5. Cadway Limited listed in the iGaming Ontario operator directory.
Alberta register entry, weighted 25%, scores 9.5. Listed as Cadway Limited operating as Betway.
Entity traceable from the site, weighted 20%, scores 8.5. Company name disclosed and matching both register entries.
Product scope clarity, weighted 15%, scores 9.0. Ontario registration covers casino and sports betting together.
Service detail verifiable externally, weighted 10%, scores 5.0. Withdrawal speed and payment methods not confirmable from the register or the site.
About two minutes. Find the legal entity name in the site footer or terms, open your provincial register, and search for that name rather than the brand.
Registers list legal entities. Betway appears as Cadway Limited, and several other casino brands are registered under Cadtree Limited. Searching a brand alone frequently returns nothing even for registered operators.
Offshore licences are genuine but offer a Canadian player almost no practical recourse. If the operator does not appear in your provincial register, it is not regulated where you live.
Not necessarily. Roughly 50 operators were registered against about 22 live in August 2026. Alberta's transition deadline is 13 October 2026, so registration and availability are still separate.
Anything about payout speed, support quality or game selection. Registration is a minimum standard that every listed operator meets equally. Differences above that floor are found by testing, not by registers.
Completing a licence check gives a strong sense of having done due diligence, which can make the deposit that follows feel already decided. The check confirms who is accountable; it says nothing about whether the amount you are about to deposit is affordable. Treat those as two separate decisions. ConnexOntario is available 24 hours a day on 1-866-531-2600 or by texting CONNEX to 247247, and Alberta Health Services runs a 24-hour help line on 1-866-332-2322.
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