Is Stake Legal in Canada? Offshore Casinos and Self-Exclusion

Stake.com is not licensed by any Canadian province. It is run by Medium Rare N.V., a company based in Curaçao and licensed by the Curaçao Gaming Authority, and its own terms list Ontario and Alberta as prohibited jurisdictions, where people may not use the service. In the rest of Canada, Stake.com is an offshore site: it may accept you, but it is not authorized where you live. Here is what that means in each province, and why it matters most if you are trying to stop.

Is Stake legal in Ontario?

No. Stake.com does not serve Ontario: Ontario is on its list of prohibited jurisdictions, and Stake is not on BetGuard's list of the regulated sites in Ontario's market. Stake's terms also say that using a VPN, a proxy or false information about where you live to get around its location checks is a breach of those terms.

Is Stake legal in Alberta?

Alberta is also on Stake.com's prohibited list. Separately, a company called Stake Canada Ltd. is registered with AGLC as an iGaming operator in Alberta's regulated market, which opened on July 13, 2026. Every operator in that market has to hold an AGLC registration and a commercial agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation, follow AGLC's rules and connect to AGLC's Self-Exclusion Program. Only a platform registered in Alberta is part of the regulated market; Stake.com, the Curaçao site, is not.

Is Stake legal in BC, Quebec and the other provinces?

In British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, the only online gambling that operates under provincial law is the provincial site: PlayNow, Loto-Québec or Atlantic Lottery. Stake.com does not bar these provinces in its terms, but it holds no licence in any of them, and its terms send disputes to an outside dispute service and to the courts of Curaçao, not to a Canadian regulator. That is what people mean by the grey market: a site that takes Canadian players under a licence from somewhere else.

What is the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission?

Many offshore sites that take Canadian players are licensed by the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission, which licenses and regulates gambling within and from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawà:ke, near Montreal. It describes itself as one of the first jurisdictions in the world to recognize online gambling, and it runs its own player protection and dispute process. It is not a provincial regulator, though. A Kahnawà:ke licence on its own does not put a site in Ontario's or Alberta's regulated market, and it does not connect the site to BetGuard or to AGLC's Self-Exclusion Program.

Why self-exclusion cannot reach Stake

Central self-exclusion works because regulated sites have to check a registry. In Ontario, every regulated site checks BetGuard; in Alberta, every registered operator is connected to AGLC's program. Stake.com and other offshore sites are in neither market, so they never look you up. Signing up for BetGuard will not close a Stake.com account or stop you opening one.

Stake has its own self-exclusion. Its policy says a self-exclusion is indefinite and lasts at least six months, is not lifted automatically, and is only reviewed if you ask in writing; if you cannot set it up yourself, its support team can help by chat or email. That only covers Stake, though, and new offshore sites and mirror addresses appear all the time.

Why a card block is not enough

Asking your bank to block gambling payments is worth doing. But Stake and many other offshore sites take cryptocurrency, and a gambling block on your card does nothing about crypto that is already in a wallet you control.

How to block Stake and other offshore sites

Because offshore sites sit outside every registry, the barrier that reaches them has to be on your own devices:

• Put a gambling blocker on every phone, tablet and computer you use. BetClear blocks gambling websites with encrypted DNS on iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows 11, using a list of more than 500,000 gambling sites that updates automatically. Stake.com, Stake.ca and Stake.us are on it, along with Bovada and Pinnacle. No blocker is perfect, because new sites appear all the time. If one gets through, you can report it.
• Close the regulated sites too. In Ontario, sign up for BetGuard. In Alberta, use AGLC's Self-Exclusion Program. In the other provinces, use your provincial lottery corporation's program.
• If you have a Stake account, self-exclude there as well.
• Ask your bank whether it can block gambling transactions, and tell someone you trust what you are doing.

If gambling is costing you more than you want it to, free and confidential help is a call away: ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600, or text CONNEX to 247247, in Ontario; Gambling Support BC at 1-888-795-6111; 211 in Alberta; Jeu : aide et référence at 1-800-461-0140 in Quebec; the Manitoba Gambling Helpline at 1-800-463-1554; and the Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Help Line at 1-800-306-6789.

Sources

• Stake.com: Terms and Conditions, sections 1.1, 14.3 and 14.4, and Self Exclusion policy (stake.com)
• AGLC: Gaming registrants (iGaming operators), iGaming, and Self-Exclusion Program (aglc.ca)
• BetGuard: Frequently Asked Questions, list of regulated operators (betguard.ca)
• Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (gamingcommission.ca)
• PlayNow (playnow.com), Loto-Québec (lotoquebec.com) and Atlantic Lottery (alc.ca)
• Criminal Code, section 207, Permitted lotteries (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca)