Quebec Gaming Coalition Presses PQ After Montreal Study on Unregulated Play

A Montreal public health survey found that 38% of the city's online gamblers, lottery aside, use only unregulated sites. Private operators read that as a case for licensing them; the study's authors drew a more cautious lesson.

• Montreal's regional public health department and Concordia University published a survey of 8,500 Montreal adults on 5 November, finding that online gambling rose from 4.4% of adults in 2018 to 13.3% in 2025
• Excluding online lottery tickets, 38% of Montreal adults who gamble online said they used only unregulated sites and 16% used both those sites and Loto-Québec's platforms
• The Quebec Online Gaming Coalition, whose members include Bet99, Betway, DraftKings, Entain, Flutter and Rush Street, called the same day for Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau to act in his coming budget update
• The new Parti Québécois government backed licensing private sites during the campaign, while Loto-Québec remains Quebec's only legal online operator
• In Ontario's licensed market, an Ipsos study for iGaming Ontario found 91.1% of online gamblers use regulated sites, though by a different survey method

A Public Health Portrait Finds Online Play Has Tripled in Montreal

The Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal (DRSP) published its 22-page report on 5 November, written with the Research Chair on Gambling Studies at Concordia University. Its authors are Jean-François Biron, Michel Fournier and Émilie Duplessis-Brochu of the DRSP and Concordia professor Sylvia Kairouz. The data come from a telephone survey of 4,002 adults on the island of Montreal between March and June 2025, followed by an online panel of 4,500 adults that the report says has limits on representativeness.

Overall participation in gambling fell to about 39% of adults in 2025, from 54.5% in 2018 and 74% in 2002, according to the report. Online participation went the other way, from 4.4% to 13.3%. The share of adults affected by gambling harm fell from 12.1% to 7.7%, but 4.6% of those who gambled were classed at moderate or high risk, a share the authors say had never before reached 3% in Montreal or Quebec. Men aged 18 to 34 were the group most affected.

The Unregulated Market Figures Come From the Online Panel

Counting online lottery purchases, 63% of Montreal adults who gamble online used only Loto-Québec's site and apps, 21% used only unregulated sites and 16% used both. Excluding lottery, which is mostly bought from Loto-Québec, the split becomes 46%, 38% and 16%. The panel also found 73% of adults think online gambling advertising should be banned and 70% think access to online gambling is too easy.

The Coalition Calls the Study Proof the State Has Lost Control

The Quebec Online Gaming Coalition responded on 5 November with a release headlined "Online gambling escapes the Quebec state". It says the data show a "majority" of players, 54%, turn to private unregulated platforms. Spokesperson Ariane Gauthier said the budget update expected in the coming weeks was a chance for Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau to announce concrete measures, and that a framework covering Loto-Québec and private companies alike would give the government "a lever" over the sector. It urged the PQ and the Liberals to agree quickly.

Section 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code lets a provincial government conduct and manage lottery schemes in its province; in Quebec that role belongs to Loto-Québec, the only legal online operator. Loto-Québec is also one of the lottery corporations challenging Ontario's player-pooling plan before the Supreme Court of Canada. In Ontario, whose competitive market opened in April 2022, an Ipsos study published by iGaming Ontario on 21 May found 91.1% of online gamblers used regulated sites, and the market generated CA$4.2 billion (approximately $3 billion) of gaming revenue in its fourth year.

The 54% Figure Is Narrower Than the Coalition Presents It

The coalition's 54% describes Montreal online gamblers once lottery is removed, drawn from a panel the authors caution about. With lottery counted, 37% used an unregulated site at all and 63% stayed entirely within Loto-Québec. The coalition's headline also drops a qualifier: the report says online gambling escapes Quebec's public authorities "en partie", in part. It is still significant for a monopoly, but it is a Montreal finding, not a provincial one.

The Study's Own Remedy Is Not Market Opening

The authors call the unregulated-site results "not surprising", a known reality that invites reflection on regulation worldwide. Their emphasis lies elsewhere: young men as a priority for prevention, prevention that does not rest on individual responsibility, and a warning against using lower harm levels as a pretext to stimulate demand. Three in four respondents want online gambling advertising banned, a finding that sits awkwardly with a licensed market in which private operators advertise, as they do in Ontario.

Ontario Is a Tempting Comparison but Not a Like for Like One

Ontario's 91.1% comes from a different survey and question, so it cannot be set directly against Montreal's figures. It still gives the PQ a benchmark, and the coalition an argument, as Marceau prepares his first update.

The study gives both sides of Quebec's debate something to quote. What the PQ government puts in its budget update will show which reading it has taken.