Gaming Licensing and Compliance Legal Services

Whether you face players or supply other licensees decides which licence you need. Aggregators and platform providers often need supplier registration in each market where their content is offered, even if they never contract with a player.

• B2C operators: player accounts, wallets, marketing and customer care.
• B2B suppliers: game content, platforms, RNG and remote game servers.
• Aggregators: one integration distributing many studios' content, typically licensed as a supplier.

Regulators look through every layer to the ultimate beneficial owners. We design structures that keep licensed entities separate where required, keep disclosures consistent across jurisdictions and avoid triggering unnecessary approvals when you raise capital.

We prepare the application file, key-person personal history disclosures, policies, and the legal opinions some regulators and payment partners require on the legality of your offering in target markets.

Once licensed, the work continues: periodic reporting, game and system change approvals, notifications of ownership and key-person changes, audits and annual fees. We keep a compliance calendar for each licence.

The AGCO assesses integrity, financial responsibility and competence of the applicant and its key persons. Complete, consistent disclosure across ownership levels is the main driver of timing.

The operating agreement sets the commercial terms, revenue share, reporting and technical integration with iGaming Ontario. We review terms and manage onboarding alongside registration.

The Standards govern responsible gambling, game integrity, AML, advertising and inducements. Ontario prohibits advertising that uses athletes, and celebrities likely to appeal to minors, and restricts publicly advertising bonuses and inducements outside the operator's own platform.

Registered operators must report specified incidents, obtain approval for certain changes, maintain controls over self-exclusion and player funds, and cooperate with AGCO audits and inspections.

Policies, risk assessment, player verification, transaction monitoring and escalation procedures aligned with your regulator's standards.

Thresholds and triggers for source-of-funds checks, politically exposed person screening and enhanced review of high-value or unusual play.

Deposit and time limits, self-exclusion, behavioural monitoring, interaction records and staff training built into your platform and procedures.

Review of campaigns, bonus terms and affiliate arrangements before launch, including Ontario's restrictions on inducements and on the use of athletes and celebrities.

Introductions to processors and gateways that serve regulated gaming, and support with merchant onboarding questionnaires and contract terms.

A due diligence package built around your licence, ownership, AML program and flow of funds, so banking partners can approve faster. Where your business itself moves funds, see our FinTech, Payments & AML practice.

Preparation for audits and inspections, document collection, interviews and coordinated written responses.

Assessment of the alleged breach, negotiation with the regulator and, where appropriate, appeals.

A credible remediation plan, with owners and deadlines, often shapes how a regulator resolves a matter.

Renewal timetables for each licence and prior approvals for changes in ownership, directors and key persons.

No. Gaming is regulated province by province. An Ontario registration covers Ontario only, and neither a Kahnawake nor a Tobique authorisation gives access to Ontario or to other provinces with their own regulated models.

Yes. Many registered operators and suppliers are foreign companies. The AGCO assesses the applicant, its owners and key persons for integrity, financial responsibility and competence, so complete and consistent disclosure matters more than where the company is incorporated.

Plan on several months to about a year, depending on the complexity of the ownership structure, the completeness of the filing and how quickly key persons complete their disclosures. The iGaming Ontario operating agreement runs alongside registration.

No. Under the reformed regime, sub-licences issued under the former master licences are no longer a valid basis to operate. Operators need to apply directly to the Curaçao Gaming Authority or move to another jurisdiction.

Often, yes. In Ontario, gaming-related suppliers must be registered before their games or platforms are offered by a registered operator. Malta, the Isle of Man and Curaçao have their own B2B licence categories.

Most gaming regulators require a documented AML and counter-terrorist financing program, customer due diligence, source-of-funds checks for higher-risk players, transaction monitoring and suspicious activity escalation. Where your business also moves funds or deals in virtual currency in Canada, FINTRAC obligations may apply separately.

See our FinTech, Payments & AML practice.

Deadlines are set in the notice and vary by regulator. Complete internal verification first, keep one point of contact, and make sure every answer is consistent with what you have previously filed.