Is it licensed? Check any Ontario casino

Step one: find the registered company

Scroll to the very bottom of the casino's website. A site that is registered in Ontario publishes the legal name of the company that holds the registration, not just the brand name. Brands and companies are often different: the brand you recognise may be operated by a company with an entirely unfamiliar name. Copy that company name down before you go any further, because it is what the official directory lists.

Step two: search the official iGaming Ontario directory

Open the iGaming Ontario operator directory and search for the brand. The directory is the authoritative public record of which operators hold an agreement with iGO, and it is updated by iGO itself rather than by any commercial site. If the brand does not appear, it is not part of Ontario's regulated market, regardless of what its homepage claims. If it does appear, check that the company named in the directory matches the one you copied from the footer.

Step three: check the Ontario-specific site

Registered operators serve Ontario through an Ontario-specific site, usually on a .ca domain or an /on path, and the registration process is geolocated: you have to be physically in the province. If a site accepts you from anywhere in Canada with no location check and no age verification, that is a signal worth taking seriously. A registered casino will always ask you to verify identity, age and address before releasing a withdrawal.

Warning signs worth walking away from

Vague or absent company details in the footer. No mention of the AGCO or iGaming Ontario anywhere on the site. Deposit methods that do not include Interac. Promises of instant payouts with no verification. Support that cannot tell you who operates the site. None of these on their own prove anything, but together they describe a site that is not answerable to an Ontario regulator, which means no complaints process and no protection if something goes wrong.