PointsBet Agrees to Two-Day Suspension in Ontario

PointsBet in Canada will suspend its online gambling site in Ontario for 48 hours. The company reached a settlement with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission (AGCO) over its handling of suspicious bets linked to former NBA player Jontay Porter. The date of the suspension has not yet been announced.

On 12 February, the AGCO had issued a notice proposing a five-day suspension. The regulator alleged that the company had failed to identify and report suspicious betting activity associated with the Porter investigation. On 26 February, PointsBet had requested a hearing before the independent Licence Appeal Tribunal. Once the parties reached an agreement, the suspension was reduced to two days. The AGCO did not share with the public its reasons for accepting the shorter period.

Under the settlement, PointsBet will undergo an independent audit of its Ontario operations. The auditor and the method will be approved by the AGCO. The company committed to addressing the findings, and the corrective steps will be independently verified. The case is expected to be the first suspension applied to a sports betting or online casino operator in Ontario's regulated online gambling market.

The process began in early 2024, when the AGCO asked licensed operators whether they had offered bets on Porter. PointsBet first responded late and said it had not opened bets on Porter. The question was repeated after the US Department of Justice indictment was released, and about 18 months later the company acknowledged that it had offered these markets. The AGCO reviewed the data and stated that there had been suspicious activity at the time that should have been noticed and reported. PointsBet attributed the initial incorrect response to human error during a corporate transition process.