Ontario Fines Betty Gaming $120,000 Over Age-Check Failure

Ontario’s gaming regulator has ordered monetary penalties totaling $120,000 against Betty Gaming after a vulnerability in Betty.ca’s age-verification controls allowed minors to create online gambling accounts.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario said nine people under the province’s legal gambling age created accounts, deposited money and gambled. Fourteen additional underage people opened accounts but did not deposit funds.

Betty Gaming identified the vulnerability and notified the regulator in November 2025. The commission’s order cites failures to prevent underage users from creating accounts or gambling and to validate player information before account creation.

People generally must be at least 19 to gamble online in Ontario. The exception is online lottery-ticket purchases, which are available from age 18. Registered operators are responsible for collecting complete and accurate information and confirming eligibility before activating an account.

Ontario standards require operators to verify age and eligibility before an account is created, not only when a user attempts a withdrawal or another later transaction. Operators remain responsible when a deployed control fails, including when they identify and report the defect themselves.

Technology providers are developing layered approaches for services that need to keep minors out. iDenfy recently added facial age estimation with identity-document fallback, allowing a provider to request stronger evidence when an initial estimate does not establish eligibility.

Regulators in other sectors have also moved from setting age-check rules to pursuing alleged violations. Florida, for example, sued adult-content platforms over compliance with its online age-verification law. The Ontario action concerns gambling standards rather than access to adult media, but both place responsibility on the operator of the restricted service.

Betty Gaming has the right to appeal the monetary-penalty order within 15 days to the Licence Appeal Tribunal, an adjudicative body independent of the gaming commission. The regulator’s announcement did not state whether the company intends to appeal.

Commission Chief Executive and Registrar Karin Schnarr said the legal-age requirement is a basic safeguard and that operators must ensure their systems function before they go live. The order makes account-creation controls, rather than only payment or wagering checks, the central compliance issue.

Sources: Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario

–

By Cass Kennedy