Responsible gambling: help lines by province

Gambling should cost only what you decided to spend on entertainment. If it’s costing more — money, sleep, time with people — talking to someone helps, and in Canada that call is free and confidential. Nothing on this page links to a casino.

Help lines

Numbers checked on the services’ own pages on September 25, 2026.[1–6] For Saskatchewan, the Atlantic provinces and the territories we link to the Responsible Gambling Council’s list rather than print numbers we couldn’t confirm at the source.

Gamblers Anonymous has no Canadian phone line; its site lists meetings in Canada through a meeting finder.

Legal age

You must be 19 to gamble online in most of Canada. In Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec the age is 18. In Ontario the lottery is 18, but online casinos and sports betting are 19.[7]

Self-exclusion

Self-exclusion means asking to be blocked from gambling sites for a set time.

• Ontario: the AGCO standards require every registered site to take part in a centralized self-exclusion program, so one request covers the regulated sites.
• Alberta runs a provincial self-exclusion for its regulated online market.
• Offshore casinos, including those in our catalogue, are not part of either program. Each offers its own self-exclusion or account closure through support or the account settings. You need to ask each casino separately.

Blocking software

Blocking tools such as Gamban and BetBlocker stop gambling websites from opening on the devices you install them on, whether or not a site is regulated in Canada. Check each tool’s own site for the devices it supports.

Keeping control while you play

• Set a deposit limit in the casino’s account settings before your first deposit, not after a loss.
• Treat a bonus as money you can’t withdraw until its terms are met.
• Don’t chase losses with a new deposit.
• Keep gambling off credit cards: the five largest Canadian banks treat a casino payment as a cash advance, with interest from day one.

If you’re worried about someone else’s gambling, the same lines take calls from family and friends.