Joseph Hillier, iGaming Ontario: “My goal with operators is to be a strong and helpful partner”
Joseph Hillier speaks with Focus Gaming News about his new role as president and chief executive officer of iGaming Ontario.
Exclusive interview.- iGaming Ontario’s board of directors has recently named Joseph Hillier as president and chief executive officer. In an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, he shared insights about his new role.
Hillier brings a broad experience in the gaming environment, having most recently served as chief strategy officer and corporate secretary at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). He also worked as chief of staff to Ontario Attorney General Hon. Doug Downey and led the development, launch and implementation of Canada’s first private sector-driven igaming market and the creation of iGaming Ontario.
He spoke about his key priorities in the new position, the most effective strategies in achieving a safer gaming environment, and responsible gaming. He also shared his vision for the growth of Ontario’s regulated online betting and gaming market and what iGaming Ontario’s next plans are.
What are your key priorities as the new president and CEO of iGaming Ontario?
My approach to leading iGaming Ontario revolves around two pillars. The first pillar is being a good business partner to our operators, and that means really digging in on the commercial side, engaging with our operators and understanding where they’re coming from. We want to make sure we’re cutting red tape and reducing the regulatory burden on our operators so they can innovate and compete – which ultimately benefits our players, too. One example of this that we’re working on is an automated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) system, which will reduce the manual reporting burden on operators.
The second pillar is responsible gambling. We want to encourage safer gambling education in our market and provide players with the tools they need to play with confidence. Our market is an ecosystem, and healthy players will mean a healthy market. An important part of this RG effort going forward will be our centralised self-exclusion system, which is currently in development.
Based on your extensive experience at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), what main strategies do you believe are most effective in achieving a safer gaming environment?
As I mentioned, responsible gambling is at the core of what we do, but we also can’t do it alone. That’s why it’s so important to work closely with our operators, our government partners at the AGCO and OLG, and with groups like the Responsible Gambling Council, which runs the RG Check program in our market. It takes a group effort to create a thriving regulated market where Ontarians can enjoy unprecedented choice in a safer environment.
“We want to encourage safer gambling education in our market and provide players with the tools they need to play with confidence.”
Joseph Hillier, iGaming Ontario.
Beyond the existing frameworks, what new measures are being considered in terms of responsible gaming to address the challenges of a maturing market?
We are looking forward to launching our centralised self-exclusion program next year, which will add another layer of protection to our market for Ontarians who want to take a break from all regulated igaming sites through a single online portal.
A substantial amount of work has been happening internally, with our government partners, the treatment provider community, and with our operators to deliver on a centralised self-exclusion program.
It’s important to remember this is a collaborative process with operators, OLG and the AGCO. We’re happy they are on board, and we think the benefit will be tremendous for Ontario. It’s full steam ahead on this project, and we’ll have more to say about a launch window in due course.
Additionally, we’re looking into opportunities to develop new partnerships and new supports for players. We think there is a lot of potential there, and we will have more to say about it next year.
Having moved from the regulatory side at the AGCO to your new role, how has your perspective on the operator-regulator relationship shifted?
I’ve been lucky to be involved with this market since the start. I was working in the office of the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario in September 2018, and the igaming file was actually one of the first policy files to land on my desk at the time. So I’ve followed this file from its initial stages, through its development and successful launch, and into last year when I was on the regulatory side at the AGCO and now to today, when I’m fortunate to be leading iGaming Ontario. So it’s been a special experience not just to be part of its growth, but to see it from different perspectives. From Day 1 with government, I’ve been passionate about the importance of a regulated private sector-driven market that champions competitiveness, integrity and player supports.
Now from my perspective today, my goal with operators is to be a strong and helpful partner. That means working to ensure the framework they work under is commercially strong and allows them to leverage their expertise to innovate, pursue growth and continue to capture more of the illicit market.
Since I started in September, I’ve set a goal of sitting down, personally, with every operator to get their perspective. Already I am learning so much from each of them about what they want to see from iGaming Ontario and the government, more generally. And our role as their partner is to be a bridge to government so they have the flexibility they need to bring new products to market, and so they understand what’s expected under the regulatory framework.
One of the primary objectives of the regulated market was to capture players from the pre-existing grey market. From your vantage point, how successful has this transition been, and what further strategies does iGaming Ontario have to increase the channelisation rate towards licensed operators?
As shown in a survey commissioned by AGCO and iGaming Ontario, over 83 per cent of Ontarians who gamble online are choosing regulated websites. That’s a dramatic turnaround from the period before we launched, when 70 per cent of online gambling was taking place on unregulated sites.
The secret to our success has been the diversity of Ontario’s open and competitive market, as well as the player protections and unprecedented choice that make our operators attractive to Ontarians. That makes our market more attractive than the unregulated one, which does not offer the same mandatory player protections and consumer safeguards.
With that diversity comes innovation — not just with operators, but at iGaming Ontario as well. That means not taking our success for granted, and continually looking for ways to work with our operator partners to emphasise player protections and give players more reasons to choose the regulated market while also making sure our own practices are not adding undue burden on operators.
Ontario’s regulated online betting and gaming market has expanded rapidly since its launch. How do you evaluate this growth, and what are your predictions for the coming months?
It’s a really exciting time of evolution for the agency and our marketplace right now. We are fulfilling the government’s objectives to create an open, competitive igaming market in Ontario. We have more than four dozen operators and more than 80 regulated gaming websites in the province, in addition to OLG. Our operators also offer well over 5,000 games in our market. That’s because we have a game catalogue and conditions policy that provides operators the ability to offer slots, table games, sports betting (single-event and parlay) and poker, but also Ontarians have access to novelty bets, same-game parlays, bingo and betting on horseracing, all with the integrity, fairness and player protections that come from being in a regulated market.
At the same time, we are capturing revenue that is going back into the province. Last fiscal year we had $3.2bn in gross gaming revenue, and we are on pace to beat that number this year, with the peak betting season only just coming up. And as we move into this next chapter at the agency, I’m excited to really engage with our operators and unleash the full potential of a regulated competitive market.
“We are fulfilling the government’s objectives to create an open, competitive igaming market in Ontario.”
Joseph Hillier, iGaming Ontario.
Looking ahead, what are iGaming Ontario’s concrete plans for the next six to twelve months to continue building on the market’s initial success?
On November 12,2025, the Court of Appeal ruled that Ontario’s proposed igaming model that would permit international play would be lawful under the Criminal Code. Though I can’t comment further given that the matter is within the appeal period, I am pleased with the decision.
Beyond the potential for international liquidity, we’re really going to sharpen our focus on partnering with operators and promoting responsible gambling, which are the two key pillars of our plan for the future. And we have a primary focus area under each of those pillars. Centralised self-exclusion is our key initiative for responsible gambling, while on the operator side, we’re really focused on developing the AML system I mentioned so we can ease the reporting burden on operators. I think as we drive those projects forward and continue the momentum we’ve had since launch, we can build on our previous success while strengthening the foundations of the market for many years to come.
