Quebec Elects a PQ Minority That Backed Licensing Private Online Gambling Sites

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who praised a Liberal plan to license every online gambling site in Quebec, will lead the province with 59 of 127 seats. His party's budget plan books CA$300 million a year from sports betting sites, but a campaign endorsement is not a bill.

• The Parti Québécois won 59 of the National Assembly's 127 seats in Quebec's 5 October election, five short of a majority, with the Quebec Liberal Party second on 40, according to Élections Québec
• During the campaign, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called the Liberal plan to have the provincial regulator license all online gambling sites "géniale" and said he would take it up
• The PQ's fiscal framework of 15 September books a royalty on sports betting sites worth CA$300 million a year from 2027-28, but names no regulator and sets out no licensing model
• Together the two parties hold 99 seats, enough to pass such a bill, but a minority PQ government has also promised a sovereignty referendum
• Loto-Québec, the province's only legal online operator, calls the private operators "foreign companies" and was due in the Supreme Court of Canada on 7 October opposing Ontario's cross-border poker plan

The Two Largest Parties in the New Assembly Both Backed a Licensed Market

The Parti Québécois (PQ) took 59 seats and 28.02% of the vote on 5 October, according to Élections Québec's results for all 127 ridings. The Liberals won 40, the Conservative Party of Quebec 19 and Québec solidaire nine. The outgoing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which had governed since 2018 and kept Loto-Québec's online monopoly in place, won none. A majority requires 64.

Liberal leader Charles Milliard set out his plan on 9 September. It would extend the mandate of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) to accredit and supervise online gambling platforms, which would have to verify identity, impose deposit limits and report risky behaviour, according to Le Devoir and La Voix de l'Est. He promised a bill in a Liberal government's first year and an industry-funded prevention body, calling it "a public health measure", not a fiscal one. The Liberal fiscal framework of 13 September counts CA$320 million (approximately $230 million) from regulating illegal online gambling in 2027-28, rising to CA$350 million in 2030-31.

That evening, asked on Radio-Canada's Cinq chefs, une élection whether another leader's idea had inspired him, St-Pierre Plamondon named Milliard's, according to a Canadian Press report carried by Noovo. "I leave him the intellectual property rights, but I am going to take it," he said, agreeing with Milliard that online sports betting in Quebec is a "Far West" of American companies advertising without regulation, and adding that Ontario had raised CA$300 million more by taxing it. iGaming Times has not seen the broadcast itself.

What the PQ Actually Costed

The PQ's fiscal framework, published on 15 September, lists a "redevance pour les sites de paris sportifs", a royalty on sports betting sites, among measures already announced. It books CA$300 million (approximately $215 million) a year from 2027-28 to 2030-31, CA$1.2 billion (approximately $860 million) in total. The document does not describe how the royalty would be collected, which body would license the sites, whether online casino is covered, or what happens to Loto-Québec's role. The same framework budgets CA$130 million (approximately $94 million) for "preparing for independence and holding the consultation", most of it in 2029-30.

The Quebec Online Gaming Coalition, whose members include Bet99, Betway, DraftKings, Entain, Flutter and Rush Street, welcomed both positions on 10 September. Its February pre-budget brief estimates CA$309 million a year by applying a 20% revenue share to Ontario's CA$2.9 billion of online revenue in 2024-25 and scaling for Quebec's adult population. It cites a Mainstreet Research survey it commissioned in October 2023, in which 73% of Quebec online players said they used private platforms for casino and sports betting; Pokerfuse reports the same survey put Loto-Québec's Espace Jeux at 26.6%.

Loto-Québec disputes the picture. In a February statement to Lottery Daily, spokesperson Renaud Dugas said the coalition "brings together foreign companies that do not create value in Québec", and cited Léger research finding 81% of Quebecers choose its site for online gaming.

A Costed Revenue Line Is Firmer Than a Television Endorsement, but Narrower

The PQ put a number in its own fiscal framework, and a party promising to balance the budget by 2028-29 has a reason to keep CA$300 million a year. But the line is a royalty on sports betting sites, not the Liberals' licensing regime for all online gambling, and it says nothing about who regulates. Ontario's model, now taking CA$396.3 million a month in revenue, earns most of it from online casino; a Quebec framework limited to sports betting would likely capture a smaller and more volatile share. Until a government bill exists, the scope is undecided.

The Seat Count Supports a Bill, the Agenda May Not

On this issue the arithmetic is unusually kind: the PQ and the Liberals hold 99 seats between them, and the Liberals could back a gambling bill while opposing the government on almost everything else. But a minority government spends its first months on an opening speech and a budget, and needs at least five votes from another party to survive both. The PQ has also said it will pursue a sovereignty referendum "whether we're in a minority or majority", and Conservative leader Éric Duhaime asked voters for the balance of power so he could block one. Whether early legislative time goes to gambling reform rather than independence and the cost of living is the open question.

Loto-Québec Will Be the Government's Own Counterweight

Any reform runs through the Crown corporation the new premier will oversee. Loto-Québec frames private operators as foreign, an argument that may carry weight with a nationalist party, and it was due in the Supreme Court of Canada on 7 October with three other lottery corporations to argue against Ontario's cross-border liquidity, a case first taken to the court in April. The rival figures, 73% private on the coalition's survey and 81% Loto-Québec on the Léger research it cites, both come from interested parties and cannot settle the channelisation question. A Quebec regime would also have to decide how to treat operators licensed in Kahnawà:ke, which its gaming commission describes as a sovereign Mohawk jurisdiction just outside Montréal. Alberta shows the transition takes time: its market opened on 13 July, and Stake is still finalising its entry ahead of a 13 October grey-market cut-off.

Quebec now has a premier on record backing a licensed online market and a costed royalty in his party's plan. What it does not yet have is a bill, a regulator or a timetable, and the first budget will show whether any of them are coming.