Loto-Québec is a crown corporation of the government in the province of Québec, Canada, and is responsible for regulating the lottery and all gambling activities in the province. The corporation, established in 1969, aims to stop gambling falling into the hands of illegal operators and organised crime. The company directs all its profits back into Québec.
Loto-Québec’s website is the only legal iGaming one in the province and offers sports betting, lottery, casino, poker, bingo, and instant games. Recently, the operator struck up a new deal to strengthen its offering. Below is a look at the deal, the reasons behind it, and at other strategies and deals that support it further.
Teaming up with Fennica Gaming
In December 2025, Loto-Québec announced it had made a content deal with Finnish gaming company Fennica Gaming. The company, a subsidiary of the Finnish National Lottery operator Veikkaus, will make its first foray into the Canadian iGaming market and place its games on the Loto-Québec site. Fennica Gaming has prepared for the venture by working with the corporation to make sure it is complying with all legal regulations and standards.
The plan
Loto-Québec wants to strengthen its offering and lure players away from the grey market. State-sponsored iGaming operators in Canada face stiff competition from it and are losing more than 1 billion Canadian dollars in gross gambling revenue to the unregulated market. Since there doesn’t appear to be any political movement to create a regulated market in Québec, as Ontario did in 2022, the problem is persisting.
Now, Québec wants to lure players away from unregulated websites or even from perfectly legitimate overseas operators and attract them towards Loto-Québec’s offering. Their offerings are fairly basic, so anyone who isn’t impressed by the Loto-Québec site may choose to play at one of these recommended Québec online casinos, which the trusted iGaming source Casino.ca has reviewed comprehensively and approved as safe. Reviews address a wide variety of factors, such as payout times, game variety, security, and more, and the site itself not only highlights online casinos that are trustworthy, but also makes visitors aware of any they should avoid and why.
International expansion by Fennica Gaming
The collaboration with Loto-Québec may be Fennica Gaming’s first outing in the Canadian market, but it’s just one part of the Finnish company’s international expansion strategy. The company has also received a licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The licence allows the Finnish company to offer its whole omnichannel library of games and rewards Fennica Gaming with a huge opportunity, given the fact that there are more than a million active iGaming accounts in Ontario.
Outside of Canada, Fennica Gaming has been pursuing growth in the UAE, where it has received a supplier’s licence from the Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, which oversees gaming in the Emirates. Over in Europe, Greece has also licensed the Finns to supply games, and this brings Fennica Gaming’s reach to 15 countries in total now.
Big 2025 deals
The Fennica Gaming deal isn’t the only one Loto-Québec has made this year. In October 2025, the organization extended its partnership of more than 50 years with Scientific Games. The supplier agreed to provide the crown corporation with a new central gaming system and replace its legacy one. The purpose is to enhance performance, security, and operational efficiency across the corporation’s online and retail networks.
Earlier, in June 2025, the operator joined forces with Inspired Entertainment, which launched its first branded Hybrid Dealer Roulette game in Canada through Loto-Québec. The game offers online players a land-based casino experience, thanks to virtual CGI graphics, true-life pre-recorded hosts, and multiplayer features. As part of a social gaming environment, the game also offers synchronized results, countdown betting timers, leaderboards, audio-visual elements, and live chat.
Loto-Québec is listening
Clearly, the state-sponsored iGaming operator understood the competition the grey market poses long before 2025’s Canadian Gaming Summit, in Toronto, where the issue of loss of gross gambling revenue to unregulated operators was raised. In October 2022, as part of its focus on North American markets, Loto-Québec partnered with Hacksaw Gaming, which started offering its “Rocket Reels” game, and later “Hands of Anubis”, on the operator’s website.
Earlier that year, the operator also finalized a deal with High 5 Games, which would offer its games on the Loto-Québec website. The company, founded in 1995, has more than 500 casino games and holds licences and game certifications in several jurisdictions around the world. Like Hacksaw Gaming, High 5 Games had also been targeting the North American market.
Loto-Québec’s deal with Fennica Gaming is an important one as it tries to fend off competition from the grey market. It seems the operator has been aware of the threat the market poses for a long time and is working hard to not only protect players in the province, but also provide them with enough variety to keep gaming and not tempt them to seek their gaming from across the border.
