PointsBet Ontario to go offline 48 hours in AGCO settlement
Enforcement & compliance2 min read
Reportedly, PointsBet Canada will take its Ontario online gambling platform offline for 48 hours under a settlement with the AGCO. The agreement replaces the five-day suspension the regulator proposed in February 2026 and requires an independent audit of the operator's handling of wagers linked to Jontay Porter. The dates for the shutdown have not been set.
PointsBet Canada has reached a settlement with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) that will shut down its Ontario online gambling platform for 48 hours. The agreement ends a regulatory dispute over how the operator handled wagers connected to Jontay Porter. When the suspension will begin has not yet been determined.
An independent auditor, subject to AGCO approval, will carry out the financial and operational review called for by the settlement, and the regulator must sign off on the audit methodology as well. Any issues the process turns up are to be remedied by PointsBet, and a separate independent review will confirm that the fixes were put in place.
The regulator had originally pushed for a tougher sanction. Its Notice of Proposed Order, issued in February 2026, called for a five-day suspension of PointsBet's iGaming registration. PointsBet challenged that recommendation, asking the Licence Appeal Tribunal for a hearing on 26 February; its case was that it had cooperated with the investigation and had quickly supplied accurate information after locating the relevant data.
The NBA looked into Porter, a former Toronto Raptors player, and found that he broke league gambling rules. His conduct included revealing private details about his health to someone placing sports bets, reducing his own involvement in games so that bets would pay out, and wagering on NBA fixtures. The league banned him for life in April 2024, and he faced a federal felony charge as well.
At the heart of the AGCO's inquiry was the question of whether PointsBet had spotted and reported bets on Porter that stood out as unusual. Ontario sportsbooks were asked by the regulator to say if they had identified suspicious betting patterns or offered markets on the player. PointsBet's first response to the commission was that it had taken no bets on Porter; once a US Department of Justice indictment became public, the AGCO went back to operators for more confirmation, and PointsBet then admitted it had accepted wagers involving him. According to the regulator, those wagers ought to have been caught and reported when they were placed.