Province-by-Province Casino Laws in Canada

Canada's Federal Gambling Framework (Criminal Code §207)

Online casino laws in Canada province by province begin with one foundational document: the Criminal Code of Canada. Sections 201 through 207 of the Code address gambling, betting, and lotteries, and the framework they establish has not fundamentally changed since 1985, when amendments handed primary regulatory responsibility for "lottery schemes" to the provinces. The federal law makes it an offence to keep a common gaming house, to conduct an unlicensed lottery scheme, or to operate gambling activities outside the narrow exemptions written into §207. The Code, however, draws a critical distinction that shapes everything else in this guide: the offences described apply to operators, not to individual players placing bets.

Section 207(1)(a) gives provincial governments the exclusive power to "conduct and manage" lottery schemes within their borders. That phrase, "conduct and manage," is the legal hook every provincial gambling agency rests on. Whether a province operates its own digital platform, licenses commercial operators through a Crown agency, or contracts with private suppliers, the activity must trace back to a provincial authority for it to satisfy the Criminal Code. Operators that run online casinos targeting Canadian residents without provincial authorization may be exposed to prosecution under §202 (betting, pool-selling, book-making) or §206 (lotteries and games of chance), but historically no Canadian player has been prosecuted for placing wagers at an offshore site.

This player-versus-operator split is not a loophole; it is a deliberate feature of the Code. Parliament's intent was to control the supply side of gambling rather than to police millions of individual transactions. Combined with the constitutional reality that gambling regulation is, in practice, a provincial matter, the Criminal Code has produced a patchwork: thirteen jurisdictions, thirteen ages of majority for gambling, thirteen sets of rules about which online operators may legally serve residents, and thirteen approaches to the offshore market that has filled the gaps left by provincial monopolies. The rest of this guide walks through how that patchwork actually works.

How Provincial Jurisdiction Over Online Casinos Works

Provincial jurisdiction over online casino activity flows from the §207 conduct-and-manage power, but each province has interpreted that authority differently. Some provinces — British Columbia is the textbook example — read "conduct and manage" narrowly, meaning the province itself must own and operate the platform. Under this interpretation, the only legal online casino for BC residents is PlayNow, owned by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. Ontario, until 2022, used the same interpretation through its OLG portal. Quebec runs Espacejeux on the same theory through Loto-Québec.

Ontario broke the mould in April 2022 by launching iGaming Ontario, a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. iGO acts as the legal "conductor and manager" while licensed private operators handle the customer-facing platform. This model — sometimes called the "agency model" or "open commercial market" — let dozens of operators legally serve Ontario residents while still satisfying the Criminal Code on paper. Alberta has announced it will transition to a similar commercial framework, with rollout signalled for late 2026 into early 2027.

The other provinces fall into two broad camps. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Atlantic provinces use a Crown-monopoly approach with shared technical infrastructure (Manitoba and Saskatchewan ride on BCLC's PlayNow platform; the four Atlantic provinces run a joint operator, ALC). The territories — Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut — have not stood up provincial online casino platforms at all, leaving residents in a regulatory vacuum where the only practical options are offshore sites.

Crucially, no province has criminalized the act of playing at an unauthorized site. Provincial gambling agencies frequently issue advisories warning residents that offshore operators are "unregulated" and that consumer-protection remedies will be limited, but the Criminal Code remains the only statute that carries gambling-related criminal penalties, and §207 targets operators. Whether a province offers a single Crown platform or a multi-operator commercial market, residents retain the practical ability to play elsewhere — and most do.

Ontario — iGaming Ontario (iGO) and AGCO

Ontario operates the only fully commercial regulated online casino market in Canada. The market launched on 4 April 2022 after years of legislative and structural work, and it is built on a two-headed framework: iGaming Ontario, a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, acts as the §207 "conductor and manager," while the AGCO itself regulates licensing, advertising standards, responsible gambling requirements, and dispute resolution. Operators sign a commercial agreement with iGO and a Registrar's Standards document with the AGCO, and only then may they accept Ontario residents.

The minimum gambling age in Ontario is 19. Operators must verify age and identity using government documents, must offer deposit and loss limits, and must integrate with GameSense Ontario for self-exclusion. The province's self-exclusion programme is run separately from individual operator tools — a player who self-excludes through the regulated system is blocked across every iGO-licensed casino simultaneously, which is one of the strongest protections available anywhere in North America.

Operators legally serving Ontario through iGO include Jackpot City, Spin Casino, PlayOJO, BetMGM, FanDuel Casino, DraftKings, Caesars, bet365, LeoVegas, and roughly forty others as of 2026. Ontario also continues to operate the OLG.ca platform through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which sits outside the iGO commercial market and competes alongside the licensed private operators. Offshore sites still serve Ontarians in practice — the iGO regulated market is opt-in for operators, and not every brand has chosen to seek registration — but the legitimate, locally regulated path is unusually well developed compared with the rest of the country.

British Columbia — BCLC and PlayNow

British Columbia takes the strictest interpretation of §207 of any province. The British Columbia Lottery Corporation, a Crown corporation reporting to the Ministry of Finance, is the only entity legally permitted to "conduct and manage" gambling activity in the province, and its online platform — PlayNow.com — is the only locally regulated online casino available to BC residents. BCLC has operated PlayNow since 2004, making it the first regulated provincial online casino in Canada.

The minimum age is 19. Identity verification is mandatory at registration, and BCLC integrates the GameSense responsible-gambling brand at every customer touchpoint. GameSense BC, launched in 2009, was the prototype for the responsible-gambling programmes that have since spread to Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, and several US states. Players can set deposit limits, time limits, and self-exclude through the BCLC voluntary self-exclusion programme, which covers PlayNow online and all BCLC-operated brick-and-mortar facilities in the province.

PlayNow's offering is comprehensive but limited compared to the open Ontario market: slots, table games, live dealer, sports betting, lottery, bingo, and poker. Despite the legal monopoly, the offshore market is widely used by BC residents. A 2024 BCLC-commissioned study estimated that more than half of online gambling spend by BC residents went to unregulated offshore operators. Provincial response has focused on consumer-education campaigns rather than enforcement against players. There is no public record of a BC resident being prosecuted for playing at an offshore site, and the BCLC's annual reports consistently frame the offshore market as a revenue and consumer-protection problem rather than a criminal one.

Alberta — AGLC, PlayAlberta and the iAGCO Open Market

Alberta's online casino framework is in transition. Today the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) operates PlayAlberta, a single-operator provincial platform launched in late 2020 in response to the COVID-era surge in online gambling. PlayAlberta accepts residents who are 18 or older — Alberta is one of only three provinces (along with Quebec and Manitoba) with an 18-plus gambling age — and offers slots, table games, live dealer content, sports betting, and lottery.

In 2024 the Government of Alberta announced its intention to follow the Ontario model and open a commercial market for online gambling. The proposed structure mirrors iGO: AGLC would continue to "conduct and manage" the activity in a §207 sense, while private operators would sign commercial agreements and become subject to AGLC's regulatory standards. Industry communications and government briefings have pointed to late 2026 or early 2027 as the launch window for the new market, sometimes informally referred to as the "iAGCO open market" in trade press, although the formal regulator branding had not been finalized at the time of writing.

For now, PlayAlberta is the only locally regulated online casino in the province. The offshore market is, as elsewhere, the practical default for residents who want broader brand selection or specific bonus structures. Once the commercial market opens, expect a rapid migration of the major operators currently serving Ontario — Jackpot City, BetMGM, PlayOJO, DraftKings, FanDuel, and others — to seek Alberta licences, which would significantly reshape the provincial landscape.

Quebec — Loto-Québec and Espacejeux

Quebec was an early adopter of provincial online gambling. Loto-Québec, the provincial Crown corporation responsible for all gaming in the province, launched Espacejeux in December 2010, making it the second provincial online casino in Canada after BC's PlayNow. The minimum age is 18, and Espacejeux is fully bilingual but French-first in design, marketing, and customer service — a reflection of Quebec's Charter of the French Language obligations and consumer expectations.

Espacejeux offers slots, table games, live dealer, poker, sports betting, bingo, and lottery products under one umbrella. Loto-Québec integrates with Aide-jeu, the provincial problem-gambling helpline, and operates a province-wide self-exclusion programme that covers Espacejeux and Loto-Québec land-based properties (Casino de Montréal, Casino du Lac-Leamy, Casino de Charlevoix, and Casino de Mont-Tremblant).

Quebec is also notable for its 2016 attempt to compel internet service providers to block offshore gambling sites. The provincial Loi sur la Société des loteries du Québec was amended to require ISPs to block sites on a Loto-Québec-maintained list, and the case was litigated up through the Quebec Court of Appeal, which in 2018 struck down the blocking provisions as ultra vires the province on federal-telecommunications grounds. The result is that the offshore market remains accessible and is, in fact, particularly well developed in Quebec because many offshore operators offer French-language interfaces and CAD banking. Loto-Québec's market share for online gambling sits well below 50 per cent of provincial spend, according to industry estimates, despite Espacejeux being the only locally regulated option.

Manitoba — LGCA and PlayNow Manitoba

Manitoba's online casino market is structured around a Crown-Crown partnership. The Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba (LGCA) is the regulator, and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) is the operator. Rather than build its own platform from scratch, MBLL contracted with BCLC in 2013 to license the PlayNow technology, and PlayNow Manitoba has operated on shared BCLC infrastructure ever since. This makes Manitoba and Saskatchewan the only two provinces where the same back-end platform serves residents of multiple jurisdictions.

The minimum age in Manitoba is 18 — one of the youngest legal gambling ages in Canada — although physical casino entry remains restricted in some venues. PlayNow Manitoba offers a slightly trimmed product mix compared to PlayNow BC, with all major categories represented but a smaller live-dealer table count and a focus on the products most popular with Manitoba customers. GameSense is the responsible-gambling brand here as in BC, and the self-exclusion programme is administered jointly with BCLC.

As is the case across the country, offshore operators serve Manitoba residents in significant numbers. The LGCA's public position is that unregulated sites carry consumer-protection risks but does not target individual players for enforcement. Manitoba has not signalled any plans to follow Ontario into a commercial open market, and the BCLC-MBLL shared-platform arrangement is expected to continue indefinitely.

Saskatchewan — SLGA and PlayNow Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan launched PlayNow Saskatchewan in November 2022, ending a long period in which Saskatchewan residents had no locally regulated online casino option. The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) regulates the activity, and the operator is the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) in partnership with BCLC — Saskatchewan became the second province after Manitoba to license the BCLC PlayNow technology stack. This Crown-First-Nations partnership is unique in Canada and reflects the long-standing role of SIGA in operating Saskatchewan's brick-and-mortar casinos.

The minimum age is 19. The product offering includes slots, table games, live dealer, sports betting, lottery, and bingo, and GameSense Saskatchewan administers the responsible-gambling framework. Self-exclusion through PlayNow Saskatchewan is coordinated with BCLC's existing programme and with the in-person self-exclusion lists maintained at SIGA-operated casinos.

Saskatchewan has not announced plans to open a commercial market in the Ontario style. With a population of roughly 1.2 million, the addressable market is smaller than Alberta or BC, and the political and First-Nations partnership dynamics around gambling in the province make a rapid shift to a commercial framework unlikely in the short term. Offshore operators continue to serve Saskatchewan residents alongside PlayNow Saskatchewan, with the same regulatory grey-area dynamics that apply elsewhere.

Atlantic Provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador

The four Atlantic provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador — operate a joint online gambling platform through the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC). ALC is owned in equal shares by the four provincial governments and runs ALC.ca as the single regulated online casino and sports betting platform serving the region. This shared-Crown model is unique to the Atlantic provinces and reflects decades of cooperation on lottery and gaming.

The minimum age in all four provinces is 19. ALC offers a relatively conservative product mix compared to Ontario or BC: slots, lottery, sports betting, scratch-and-win-style games, bingo, and a smaller selection of table games. Live dealer content is limited, and the platform's customer experience reflects ALC's lottery heritage more than the casino-first design of Espacejeux or PlayNow.

Each province has its own gambling regulator overseeing ALC's activities — the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation, the New Brunswick Department of Public Safety, the PEI Lotteries Commission, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Service NL — but in practice the regulatory framework is harmonized across the four jurisdictions. Offshore operators are widely accessible to Atlantic Canadians, and none of the four provinces has taken meaningful enforcement action against players. ALC participates in the responsible-gambling space through its My-Play system and supports provincial problem-gambling helplines in all four jurisdictions.

Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut — No Territorial Platform

Canada's three territories — Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut — have no locally regulated online casino platforms. The territorial governments have not exercised the §207 conduct-and-manage authority for online gambling, partly due to population scale (Nunavut has roughly 40,000 residents, the Northwest Territories about 45,000, and Yukon about 45,000) and partly due to the practical and constitutional questions about whether the territories possess the same authority as provinces under the Criminal Code.

The minimum gambling age across all three territories is 19, mirroring the surrounding provinces. Land-based gambling is minimal: the Yukon operates limited charitable gaming and lottery sales through Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC), the Northwest Territories has a similar charitable-gaming and lottery framework, and Nunavut has the most restrictive land-based environment in the country with virtually no licensed gambling beyond occasional charitable events.

For online play, residents of the three territories effectively rely on the offshore market. There is no territorially licensed online casino, and the provincial Crown platforms (PlayNow, Espacejeux, ALC.ca, etc.) typically restrict registration to residents of their own province. Offshore operators are the practical default for any territorial resident who wants to play online, and the same player-versus-operator split in the Criminal Code applies: prosecutions of individual players have not occurred, and operators serving territorial residents do so under whatever international licence they hold rather than any Canadian authorization.

Offshore Casinos Across Canada — The Grey Area

Offshore online casinos operate in a regulatory grey area across Canada that has persisted for more than two decades. These sites — licensed in jurisdictions such as Curaçao, Malta (Malta Gaming Authority), the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, or the UK Gambling Commission — accept Canadian players nationwide without seeking or holding any provincial Canadian licence. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is itself based in Canada, on Mohawk territory in Quebec, and licenses some of the longest-running online casinos in the industry, although its provincial-law status remains contested.

The legal posture is consistent: offshore operators may be vulnerable to prosecution under §202 or §206 of the Criminal Code for conducting unlicensed gambling activity, but in practice no large offshore operator has ever been charged in Canada for serving Canadian players. The federal government has not pursued such cases, and provincial regulators lack criminal-prosecution authority. The result is a market where dozens — by some estimates hundreds — of offshore brands serve Canadian players, often with CAD banking, Interac deposits, and full English- or French-language support.

For players, the practical risks are not criminal but consumer-protection-related: an offshore operator that refuses to pay out, freezes accounts, or fails to honour bonus terms cannot be sued in a Canadian small-claims court the way a domestic operator can, and provincial regulators have no jurisdiction to intervene. Choosing an offshore site with a reputable licence (MGA, UKGC, Kahnawake, Gibraltar) and a long operating history materially reduces those risks. Hudson Casino's offshore casino reviews focus heavily on licensing, payout history, and dispute-resolution mechanisms for exactly this reason. Players who do choose to use offshore operators should pair that choice with strong self-management tools — deposit limits, session timers, and the resources outlined in our responsible-gambling resource guide.

Tax Treatment of Casino Winnings in Canada

The tax treatment of online casino winnings in Canada is one of the few areas of the framework that is genuinely settled and consistent across provinces. The Canada Revenue Agency, applying long-standing jurisprudence including the 1957 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Minister of National Revenue v. Morden, treats recreational gambling winnings as windfalls rather than income. A windfall is not taxable. This means the vast majority of Canadian online casino players — those playing for entertainment, on disposable income, without a business-like systematic approach — do not owe federal or provincial income tax on their winnings, whether the winnings come from a domestic regulated operator or an offshore site.

The exception is professional gamblers. The CRA may treat gambling as a "source of income" under §3 of the Income Tax Act when a taxpayer pursues it with sufficient regularity, organization, and a profit-seeking intent that the activity resembles a business. The leading case here is Luprypa v. The Queen (1997), in which a professional pool player's winnings were taxed because his activity met the business-test threshold. For casino games, where the house edge makes long-run profit improbable, the CRA bar for "professional" status is high, but it is not impossible — a small number of advantage players (card counters, professional poker players) do report gambling income.

Two important wrinkles: winnings paid in a foreign currency by an offshore operator should be reported at fair market value if they are otherwise taxable (rare, but applicable to professionals), and any interest earned on gambling winnings held in a Canadian bank account is taxable as ordinary investment income. For the typical recreational player, however, the headline rule is straightforward: casino winnings, whether from PlayNow, Espacejeux, an iGO-regulated operator, or an offshore site, are not taxable income in Canada.

Cross-Border Play (US, UK, EU) — What's Allowed

Canadians frequently ask whether they can play at US, UK, or EU-licensed online casinos while travelling, while living in Canada, or as expats. The answer depends on the destination jurisdiction rather than on Canadian law, because Canadian law does not restrict outbound online gambling by individuals.

In the United States, online casino availability is state-by-state. Only seven US states have legal online casinos as of 2026 — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island — and these state-regulated platforms enforce geolocation: a Canadian visitor physically present in New Jersey can legally play on a New Jersey-licensed casino, but the same operator will block access the moment the player crosses into a state without legal online gambling. Sports betting is more widely available in the US, but the same geolocation principle applies. US tax law, importantly, may require non-resident Canadians to file a 1040-NR for large gambling winnings, with a 30 per cent withholding tax that can be partially recovered under the Canada-US tax treaty.

In the United Kingdom, the UK Gambling Commission licenses operators that may legally serve UK residents, and most UKGC-licensed sites use IP and identity checks to restrict registration to UK residents. Canadians cannot generally register directly with UKGC sites from Canada, although many of the same operators run separate Canadian-facing brands under MGA or Curaçao licences. The European Union has no unified gambling market — each member state regulates separately — and Canadian players are typically blocked from EU national markets by similar residency restrictions. Malta-licensed (MGA) operators are the most common European licence type that openly accepts Canadians, and many of these sites are core to the offshore Canadian market.

Underage Gambling — Consequences and Verification

Every Canadian province and territory sets a minimum age for legal gambling: 18 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec; 19 everywhere else, including all three territories and the four Atlantic provinces. The Criminal Code does not set a federal minimum age — this is a provincial decision, made under the same §207 conduct-and-manage authority that lets provinces set the rest of their gambling framework — but the practical effect is that the minimum is either 18 or 19 across the entire country.

Consequences for underage gambling fall on the operator far more than on the underage player. Provincially regulated platforms (PlayNow, Espacejeux, ALC.ca, PlayAlberta, OLG.ca, and the iGO-licensed Ontario operators) all use identity verification at registration — typically a combination of credit-bureau soft pulls, government-ID upload, and address verification — to confirm the player meets the minimum age. Accounts that fail verification cannot deposit or withdraw. Offshore operators vary widely in the strictness of their age and identity verification, with reputable MGA and UKGC-licensed sites enforcing strict KYC, and weaker Curaçao operators sometimes allowing play before full verification is completed (although withdrawal will typically trigger a KYC review).

When an underage player is caught — usually at the withdrawal stage — the standard remedy is account closure, forfeiture of winnings, and return of deposits net of losses. Provincial regulators can fine or sanction operators that fail to enforce age verification. Criminal charges against underage players are essentially unheard of, but the practical financial loss can be substantial. Parents and guardians should be aware that the easiest path to underage gambling is reuse of an adult family member's payment instruments, and operator-side controls (deposit limits, account monitoring, cooling-off periods) are useful tools regardless of whether underage play is suspected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is online casino play legal for Canadian residents?

Yes, in the practical sense that matters to players. The Criminal Code targets operators rather than players, and no Canadian player has been criminally prosecuted for placing online wagers. Provincially regulated platforms (Ontario's iGO market, BC's PlayNow, Quebec's Espacejeux, and the others) offer locally licensed options in nine of ten provinces, and offshore sites — operating in a grey area — serve players nationwide including in the three territories. The legality question is most accurately framed as: legal for players, regulatory grey area for non-provincially-licensed operators.

Which province has the most permissive online casino regulation?

Ontario, by a wide margin. The iGaming Ontario commercial market, launched in April 2022, is the only fully open commercial online casino regime in Canada and gives Ontario residents access to dozens of legally licensed operators with strong consumer protections. Alberta is expected to follow with a similar model in late 2026 or early 2027. The other provinces continue to operate Crown monopolies (BC's PlayNow, Quebec's Espacejeux, Manitoba and Saskatchewan's PlayNow variants, the four Atlantic provinces' shared ALC.ca platform), which limits brand choice but still provides legally regulated options.

Do I have to pay tax on casino winnings in Canada?

Almost certainly not. The Canada Revenue Agency treats recreational gambling winnings as non-taxable windfalls under long-standing jurisprudence. This applies whether you play at a provincially regulated operator or an offshore site. The exception is professional gamblers — taxpayers who pursue gambling with sufficient regularity, systematic methods, and profit-seeking intent that it resembles a business. The CRA threshold for "professional" status is high, and the vast majority of recreational players do not owe tax on winnings. Interest earned on winnings held in a Canadian bank account is taxable as ordinary investment income.

What is the minimum gambling age in each province?

Eighteen in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec. Nineteen in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Nineteen in all three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut). These ages are set by the provinces under their §207 conduct-and-manage authority, not by the federal Criminal Code, and they apply to both online and land-based gambling within each jurisdiction.

Can I legally play at an offshore casino as a Canadian?

No Canadian player has been criminally prosecuted for playing at an offshore casino, and the Criminal Code's offences in §202, §206, and §207 target operators rather than players. That said, offshore operators do not hold Canadian provincial licences, so they sit in a regulatory grey area. The practical risks are consumer-protection-related rather than criminal: offshore operators are outside Canadian small-claims court jurisdiction, provincial regulators cannot intervene in disputes, and the quality of licensing varies widely (MGA and UKGC are strong; some Curaçao sub-licences are weak). Choose carefully and pair offshore play with strong self-management tools.

What happens if a Canadian online casino refuses to pay me?

For provincially regulated operators (PlayNow, Espacejeux, ALC.ca, iGO-licensed Ontario operators, PlayAlberta, OLG.ca), the provincial regulator provides a dispute-resolution mechanism. In Ontario, the AGCO accepts complaints against iGO-registered operators. Other provincial regulators offer similar channels through their gaming commissions. For offshore operators, recourse is limited to the operator's licensing authority — the Malta Gaming Authority and UK Gambling Commission accept complaints from international players, but Curaçao's eGaming Licensing Authority is widely considered weak on enforcement. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, based in Canada, accepts complaints against its licensees.

Are the new commercial markets (Ontario, soon Alberta) safer than offshore options?

Generally yes, on the dimensions that matter most to consumers. Provincial commercial markets require operators to meet local Know Your Customer rules, integrate with provincial self-exclusion programmes, submit to advertising standards, provide audited game outcomes, and offer locally enforceable dispute resolution. Offshore operators with strong licences (MGA, UKGC, Kahnawake) often match or exceed these standards, but the legal recourse remains weaker for Canadians playing offshore. The trade-off for players is brand choice and bonus structure (often broader offshore) versus regulatory protection (stronger domestically).

Does Hudson Casino review only provincially licensed sites?

No. Hudson Casino's full Canadian casino rankings cover both provincially regulated operators and reputable offshore sites that accept Canadian players, with each review noting the licensing status, applicable provincial restrictions, dispute-resolution channels, and responsible-gambling tools. The goal is to give Canadian players honest information about the full range of options available to them under the actual legal framework — Criminal Code §207, the patchwork of provincial conduct-and-manage decisions, and the offshore grey area — rather than pretending the regulated market is the only one that exists.