Ontario's bid to allow cross-border online poker liquidity is now before the Supreme Court of Canada
The Ontario Court of Appeal originally ruled 4-1 in favor of the province's proposed model back in November 2025
Alberta and Loto-Québec have both filed motions to get involved in the case
Ontario’s push to bring cross-border online poker into its regulated gaming market has now reached the country’s highest court, with the Supreme Court of Canada set to hear the case that could entirely decide the future of online poker.
It’s all happening under SCC file 42141, which landed on the Supreme Court docket after a split ruling at the Ontario Court of Appeal late last year. The province won that one 4-1, but a lone dissent has now opened the door to an appeal, and both Alberta and Loto-Québec have since filed motions to get involved.
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Back in early 2024, Ontario put a pretty simple question to the Court of Appeal that was across poker news sites.
The province wanted to know if online gaming and sports betting would still be lawful under the Criminal Code in a scenario where Ontario-based players could take part in games with other players outside Canada. The main problem is about pooled liquidity for peer-to-peer products, but poker is the game where it matters the most because Ontario wants its players sitting at the same tables and in the same tournaments as people in other countries. The specific legal issue is regarding section 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, which is the provision that gives provinces the authority to conduct and manage lottery schemes within their borders, and it’s the same section that Ontario’s entire regulated iGaming market has been built on since it launched. What the province needs to find out is if that authority can stretch to cover international lines rather than staying boxed in within Ontario.
Ontario’s regulated iGaming market runs on a ring-fenced structure right now, and AGCO standards say that games on operator sites can only be provided within Ontario if there’s an agreement with another Canadian province. That’s not an issue for slots or table games where you’re playing against the house but it puts a real ceiling on poker because the whole point of the game is that you need other people at the table.
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The Court of Appeal ruling from November 2025 is the reason this case has some decent legs to it, because four of the five justices agreed that Ontario’s proposed cross-border model could remain lawful, which was a significant win for the province. One justice saw it differently, though, and under Canadian law even one dissent on a point of law at the appellate level gives the other side an automatic right to take the case to the Supreme Court without needing any special permission.
For poker players in Ontario, the province still isn’t in an international player pool, and there’s unfortunately no real set timeline for that to happen right now. The Supreme Court is debating whether Ontario can move in that direction, though, so think of this as the permission stage rather than anything close to a launch. It’s a pretty interesting case that’s worth following closely because the outcome could change what Ontario’s online poker market looks like over the next few years.
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