As Canada’s regulated online gambling market matures, the conversation around player safety has shifted from optional to mandatory. Nikolina Jerić is an iGaming writer and expert contributor at Casino.ca, an independent Canadian casino review and comparison site, where she has spent more than five years testing platforms, analyzing regulatory standards, and writing for players navigating an increasingly complex market.
Toronto Guardian spoke with Nikolina about how regulation is changing expectations for player safety, what new operators must meet before they can accept Canadian players, and what to look for when a new casino catches your eye.
Q: Canada’s regulated online casino market is still relatively new. How has it actually changed things for players?
A: The biggest change is accountability. Before Ontario’s regulated market launched in 2022, a player who had a problem with a site had very limited options: contact support and hope for the best, or walk away. Now, operators registered with iGaming Ontario are legally accountable to the AGCO. The regulator can compel them to respond to complaints. Most players don’t think about that until something goes wrong for the first time, and then it matters enormously.
Q: When we talk about “player safety,” what does that actually cover in practice?
A: More than most people assume. Responsible gambling tools like deposit limits, session timers, and self-exclusion are mandatory on registered sites, and they have to be functional and accessible, not buried in account settings. Fair game practices matter too: certified RNGs, transparent RTPs, bonus terms disclosed upfront. And then there’s data protection; how a site handles player information. It’s a baseline every registered operator has to meet before they can accept a single deposit from a Canadian player.
Q: How do new casinos entering the regulated space compare to established ones when it comes to meeting those standards?
A: People assume newer means riskier. In the regulated market, it’s more complicated. New online casinos launching in Ontario go through the same AGCO registration process as everyone else. There is no grace period on responsible gambling requirements or fair play standards. In some cases, newer operators build their platforms from scratch with regulation in mind, which can produce cleaner UX and better-integrated safety tools than older platforms that are retrofitting compliance onto legacy systems.
Q: How do you evaluate a new casino specifically for player safety?
A: I start with the iGaming Ontario registration list. If a site isn’t on it, I stop there. Then I look at the responsible gambling section: how easy is it to set a deposit limit, and does the site actively surface those tools or just make them technically available somewhere? I also check how clearly bonus terms are disclosed. Ontario’s AGCO standards require material conditions to be presented at first offer, but there’s room in how “first presentation” gets interpreted. Some sites comply in spirit. Others do the bare minimum.
Q: What role does independent certification play on top of regulatory registration?
A: It adds something registration doesn’t cover. Registration with iGaming Ontario tells you an operator cleared a regulatory review. But, it doesn’t tell you much about game-by-game fairness once the platform is live. Independent testing labs like eCOGRA or GLI audit the RNG and game outcomes separately. When a site has that certification alongside its iGO registration, it’s a much stronger signal than either one alone. I check for both.
Q: Casino.ca covers new operators entering the Canadian market. What do you look for when reviewing them?
A: The first thing I check is whether they have a track record in other regulated markets. An operator running cleanly in the UK or Malta for several years is a different proposition from one that appeared six months ago with no prior history. I also check payment infrastructure. Specifically, whether they support Interac, which requires a real Canadian banking relationship and is one of the clearest signals that an operator has properly set up for this market, not just decided to accept Canadian players. And I read the terms end to end, because new sites sometimes launch with bonus offers that don’t yet fully comply with Ontario’s disclosure requirements. Casino.ca reviews those operators firsthand, so players browsing new online casinos on the platform can rely on that process having already been done.
Q: For players who are cautious about trying a newly launched casino, what would you tell them?
A: Caution is reasonable, but the regulated market does a lot of the heavy lifting. A new casino that’s iGO-registered has already cleared a significant compliance bar before it ever opens to players. My practical advice: start with a modest deposit, test the withdrawal process before you put serious money in, and contact customer support with a question before you need help. How fast a site responds and how well their agents know the product tells you more about how the operation is run than most reviews will.
Q: Is there anything about how the market is evolving that players should be paying attention to?
A: The bonus advertising rules are worth understanding. Registered Ontario operators can’t advertise bonuses publicly; only on their own platform or to players who’ve opted in. That means the aggressive “$500 free” promotions players see from grey-market operators aren’t coming from regulated sites. For players, that’s a protection, as it limits predatory marketing. But it also makes regulated operators less visible on that front. Players who shop purely by bonus size can end up on unregulated platforms without realizing that’s the choice they just made.
