Gambling addiction help in Canada

Verified helplines

Helplines and online chat

There is no single Canadian gambling helpline. Each province funds its own, and the provincial line is the one that knows which local services have room:

• Ontario: ConnexOntario, 1-866-531-2600, 24/7, free and confidential, with text (247247), chat and email. It connects people directly to gambling programs in their community.
• British Columbia: 1-888-795-6111, 24 hours, free and confidential.
• Alberta: 1-866-461-1259.
• Quebec: Jeu : aide et référence, 1 800 461-0140 (Montreal area 514 527-0140), 24/7, free, bilingual, with chat at aidejeu.ca. It also keeps a map of rehabilitation centres across Quebec.

In Ontario, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health takes gambling referrals directly on 416-535-8501, option 2. Gamblers Anonymous meetings run in most Canadian cities; the meeting finder is at gamblersanonymous.org.

Self-exclusion

Ontario is the only province with a centralised online scheme. BetGuard, launched by iGaming Ontario on 14 May 2026, is one registration at betguard.ca that covers every regulated online gambling site in Ontario: more than 75 sites, including OLG's. You choose 6 months, 1 year, 5 years or a custom term. While it runs, you cannot get into existing accounts, cannot open new ones, and stop receiving marketing from any regulated Ontario site. It is open to people 19 and over, takes minutes, and works whether or not you already have a gambling account.

Land-based and provincial-lottery exclusion is separate, and each province runs its own:

The territories have no land-based self-exclusion program; the Responsible Gambling Council lists helplines there instead. How schemes compare across countries is in self-exclusion by country.

Blocking gambling payments and sites

Provincial exclusion covers regulated operators. It does nothing about offshore sites, which is why iGaming Ontario's own help page points people to blocking software, naming BetBlocker and Gamban, alongside BetGuard. Which app suits which device is covered in apps that block gambling sites.

There is no Canada-wide bank gambling block of the kind some UK banks run. Ask your own bank whether it can decline gambling merchants on your account, and in the meantime remove your cards from gambling accounts, keeping day-to-day money in an account with no card saved anywhere, and using the deposit and time limits inside each operator account. How to set gambling limits goes through the order to do this in.

Free treatment and counselling

Gambling counselling in Canada is publicly funded and free to the person using it; the provincial helpline is the referral route rather than a waiting room. ConnexOntario works with counselling services, healthcare providers and community programs across Ontario and books you into them without a doctor's referral. In British Columbia, everyone who signs up for Game Break is offered a referral to a gambling support professional, a service the provincial government pays for. In Quebec, Jeu : aide et référence refers to rehabilitation centres throughout the province.

Treatment is usually outpatient talking therapy, most often cognitive behavioural therapy, sometimes in a group; gambling addiction treatment describes what happens in it. If you are waiting for a first appointment, a Gamblers Anonymous meeting or the helpline's own phone counselling fills the gap.

Support for family and friends

The provincial helplines answer calls from partners, parents and friends, not only from people who gamble, and they refer family members to counselling in their own right. Gam-Anon groups meet in several provinces alongside Gamblers Anonymous.

If money is involved, deal with the accounts before the conversation: what to do about gambling debt and how to help someone with a gambling problem cover the practical steps and the ones that backfire.

Gambling law and the regulator

Gambling in Canada is run province by province. Each province licenses, conducts or manages its own gambling through a Crown corporation or board: OLG in Ontario, BCLC in British Columbia, AGLC in Alberta, Loto-Québec, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, SIGA in Saskatchewan. Ontario is the exception in having opened a competitive online market: the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario regulates it and iGaming Ontario conducts and manages the regulated online sites, which is why BetGuard can cover all of them at once.

Minimum ages are provincial too, and differ by product. In Ontario you must be 18 for lottery, charitable gaming and in-store sports betting, and 19 for casinos, slot facilities, online casino gaming and online sports betting. Other provinces set their own age, so check the Crown corporation for your province before assuming the Ontario rule applies.