Québec Liberals Pledge Private Online Gaming Licences as PQ Backs Market Reform
Charles Milliard’s plan would expand RACJ oversight, set operator rules and target up to C$320 million in annual revenue.
Québec’s Liberal Party has made a campaign pledge to license private online gambling operators, a change that would end the province’s single-operator legal online market if enacted. Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has backed the idea, putting regulated iGaming on the agenda ahead of the Oct. 5 provincial election.
Liberal leader Charles Milliard announced the proposal Sept. 9. It would require every online gambling platform to obtain provincial accreditation and expand the mandate of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, or RACJ, so it oversees the whole sector, including Loto-Québec. A Liberal government would introduce the necessary bill in its first year.
Operators would face stricter rules on advertising, gambling-addiction prevention and protection of minors. The plan also calls for an independent organization, funded by the industry, to provide harm-prevention and support services. Part of the new revenue would go to a prevention fund.
Milliard projected annual revenue of C$310 million to C$320 million starting in fiscal 2027-28. That estimate appeared in the party’s Sept. 13 fiscal framework. It is a campaign projection, rather than an enacted government forecast.
The PQ has not set out its own costed framework or identified which regulator would supervise private operators. Still, Plamondon called the Liberal proposal “brilliant” and described online sports betting in Québec as a “Wild West,” pointing to American companies advertising in the province without regulation. He said potential proceeds could be directed to homelessness, school hunger and learning disabilities.
Québec currently authorizes Loto-Québec’s online products, including Espace Jeux, as the province’s legal online gambling offering. That leaves online poker players limited to the provincially run market, including Loto-Québec’s Canada Poker Network offering.
The Québec Online Gaming Coalition, an industry group representing private-sector companies, welcomed the commitments from both parties. Its February submission to the provincial government argued that the present system does not control private online offers and leaves about C$300 million in annual tax revenue uncollected. The coalition’s estimates should be read as industry advocacy, not government projections.
The coalition cited a survey of 1,010 Québec residents who said they played online: 73% used privately operated platforms for online casino games and sports betting, while 26.6% used Espace Jeux for those activities. It also cited a 2025 Blask estimate that Loto-Québec accounted for 17% of online gambling activity in the province.
The proposed direction resembles competitive-market reforms already adopted elsewhere in Canada. Ontario opened its market to private operators in April 2022 and generated C$1.26 billion in total gaming revenue in its first full year, with iGaming Ontario contributing C$145.7 million directly to the province. By fiscal 2024-25, total gaming revenue had reached C$2.9 billion and iGaming Ontario’s provincial contribution was C$261 million. Alberta became the second province with a regulated market open to private operators on July 13.
For poker, a Québec market opening could create a new regulated opportunity for operators, but it would not itself establish shared player liquidity with Ontario or Alberta. Ontario’s poker market remains ring-fenced, Alberta’s regulated online poker market has not launched, and any cross-provincial pool would depend on each province’s rules and agreements governing shared play.
Pallas Data polling published Sept. 12 put the PQ at 27% among decided and leaning voters, with the CAQ and Liberals both at 23%.
