Statista's December market update puts Canada's casino market, online and land-based combined, at C$12.5 billion for 2025. That is 15% growth in a single year, and roughly double the pandemic-year low of C$6.2 billion in 2020. The same dataset projects C$16.9 billion by 2030, around 6% a year from here.
A definitional note before anyone quotes that number against Ontario's figures: this is a market-research estimate covering all casino play across Canada, a wider net than iGaming Ontario's regulated-market GGR of $3.2 billion. The two numbers measure different things, and both are doing well. We keep the receipts for each on our market statistics page.
The participation figure is the one worth sitting with: 40.8% of Canadians played casino games in 2025, by Statista's measure, up from 24% in 2020 and projected to pass half the population by 2030. Casino play is competing for the same evenings as streaming and video games, and Canadians already spend over 14 hours a week on TV alone. Gambling is a mainstream entertainment line item, which is exactly why the protections regulated markets bring matter at this scale.
Where is the growth coming from? Online. Worldwide, online casino revenue jumped 31% in 2023 and kept climbing, while land-based growth has settled near 1-2% a year. Canada is following the pattern with extra force: Ontario's open market keeps compounding, and Alberta joins on July 13. More licensed operators competing for the same players is good news for exactly one group, and it is not the operators.
For players, the practical takeaway is leverage. A 21-casino regulated field (about to grow again) has to compete on the things this site measures: how fast they pay, how their verification treats you, what the lobby holds. Our rankings exist to make that competition visible.