Quebec was the earliest province to build a modern lottery corporation: Loto-Québec was established in 1969, ran its first draw on 14 March 1970, and — per Loto-Québec's own history — was Canada's first provincial lottery corporation (a claim we can't independently verify against a neutral third-party ranking, but which holds up against its closest rivals, since the Western Canada Lottery Foundation wasn't formed until 1974 and Ontario's not until 1975). Casino de Montréal opened 9 October 1993 on the site of Expo 67's former France Pavilion, and Loto-Québec's online platform, Espacejeux, launched in late 2010. Quebec's most consequential and most instructive gambling-law episode came later: Bill 74, passed 17 May 2016, required internet service providers to block Quebec residents' access to unlicensed offshore gambling sites in order to protect Loto-Québec's online monopoly — and on 24 July 2018 the Superior Court of Québec ruled that ISP-blocking provision unconstitutional, finding it intruded on federal jurisdiction over telecommunications and criminal law. Quebec still runs online gambling as a single government-monopoly platform rather than Ontario's or Alberta's competitive private-operator model. 18+.
1969–1970: Loto-Québec, Canada's first lottery corporation
Quebec moved first among the provinces once the 1969 federal reform made provincial lotteries legally possible (see our national history guide). What became the Société des loteries du Québec (Loto-Québec) was established under provincial legislation in 1969, following the December 1969 federal Criminal Code amendment, and ran its first draw — the Monthly Lottery, a $2 ticket with a $125,000 jackpot — on 14 March 1970. Loto-Québec's own official history describes it as "Canada's first lottery corporation, and North America's third," and while that's a self-reported claim rather than an independently adjudicated ranking, it does check out against the closest comparators: the multi-province Western Canada Lottery Foundation wasn't formed until 1974, and the Ontario Lottery Corporation not until 1975.
Loto-Québec's mandate grew well beyond lottery draws over the following decades to include casinos, video lottery terminals, bingo halls and, eventually, online gambling — making it one of the most vertically integrated gambling operators of any Canadian province, in contrast to Ontario's later split between OLG (land-based/lottery) and a separate private-competitive iGaming layer.
1993: Casino de Montréal opens in the former Expo 67 France Pavilion
Quebec's first casino, Casino de Montréal, opened on 9 October 1993 on Notre-Dame Island in Jean-Drapeau Park — built from the renovated former France Pavilion (and the adjoining Québec Pavilion) originally constructed for Expo 67, giving the casino an architectural history distinct from any other Canadian gambling venue. It opened with 65 gaming tables and 1,200 slot machines and drew roughly 12,000 visitors a day in its early period, quickly establishing itself as one of the busiest casinos in Canada.
Loto-Québec later extended into online gambling with Espacejeux.com, which opened for pre-registration on 19 November 2010 with full play access from 1 December 2010 — described at the time as "North America's second government-owned and operated online gaming site" (after British Columbia's PlayNow; see our BC history guide). Espacejeux remains Quebec's sole legal online gambling platform today — Quebec has not followed Ontario's or Alberta's move to license competing private operators.
2016: Bill 74 tries to block offshore gambling sites
Quebec's most distinctive gambling-law episode is Bill 74, passed 17 May 2016, which amended the province's Consumer Protection Act to require internet service providers operating in Quebec to block access to unlicensed offshore online gambling sites — explicitly framed as protecting Loto-Québec's Espacejeux monopoly from competition. The mechanism required Loto-Québec to compile a blacklist of offshore sites, which the provincial gaming regulator (the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux) would forward to ISPs with a 30-day compliance window; ISPs that failed to block the listed sites faced fines of $100,000 to $500,000.
The law drew immediate opposition from Quebec's ISPs, who argued (correctly, as it turned out) that provincial governments don't have the constitutional authority to regulate internet infrastructure or override federal criminal law through a consumer-protection statute.
2018: Bill 74's ISP-blocking rule struck down
On 24 July 2018, the Superior Court of Québec ruled that Bill 74's ISP-blocking provision was unconstitutional and beyond the province's legislative authority (ultra vires), on the grounds that its actual object and effect intruded on two areas of exclusive federal jurisdiction: telecommunications regulation and criminal law. The court's reasoning went further than a narrow jurisdictional technicality — it found the measure was really aimed at suppressing Loto-Québec's online competitors rather than protecting consumer health, undermining the province's own stated rationale for the law. Quebec's Attorney General announced an appeal in August 2018; we were not able to verify the appeal's final outcome in this research pass, so treat Bill 74's current legal status as unresolved pending confirmation, though the ISP-blocking mechanism has not been implemented since the 2018 ruling.
The Bill 74 saga is instructive well beyond Quebec: it's the clearest Canadian precedent that a province cannot use its "conduct and manage" gambling authority to compel ISPs to block offshore sites, which is part of why Alberta's 2026 iGaming launch (see our Alberta history guide) involves no site-blocking mechanism at all — it relies entirely on building a more attractive regulated market, not restricting access to unregulated ones.
Frequently asked questions
Was Loto-Québec really Canada's first lottery corporation?
That's Loto-Québec's own claim, made on its official history page, rather than an independently adjudicated ranking by a neutral third party. It does hold up against the closest comparators we could verify — the Western Canada Lottery Foundation (1974) and the Ontario Lottery Corporation (1975) both came later — but we cite it as Loto-Québec's own characterisation rather than an unqualified fact.
Can Quebec still block offshore gambling websites?
No — the ISP-blocking mechanism created by Bill 74 (2016) was ruled unconstitutional by the Superior Court of Québec in 2018, on the grounds that it intruded on federal jurisdiction over telecommunications and criminal law. We could not confirm the final outcome of Quebec's announced appeal, but the blocking mechanism has not been implemented since the ruling.
Does Quebec allow private online gambling operators like Ontario does?
No. Quebec runs online gambling as a single government-monopoly platform, Espacejeux, operated by Loto-Québec. Unlike Ontario (2022) or Alberta (2026), Quebec has not opened its online gambling market to competing, individually licensed private operators.
What happened to the offshore sites Quebec tried to block with Bill 74?
Nothing changed for them legally — the ISP-blocking mechanism was never durably implemented after the Superior Court of Québec struck it down in July 2018. Offshore crypto casinos and other offshore gambling sites remain technically reachable from Quebec today, in the same grey-tolerated position they occupy across most of Canada, even though Loto-Québec's Espacejeux remains the only Quebec-licensed online option.
Sources & further reading
- Loto-Québec — Our history
- Wikipedia — Montreal Casino
- Michael Geist — Government-mandated website blocking comes to Canada as Quebec's Bill 74 takes effect
- Michael Geist — Court rules Quebec plan for mandated ISP blocking of online gambling sites is unconstitutional
- Lexology — Québec's Superior Court rules that Bill 74 is unconstitutional
Eitan Gorodetsky is the editorial reviewer behind Verdikt's guides for North America. He verifies every licence claim against the official registers, checks the real legality under Canadian provincial law and US state law, and never accepts payment for a better rating. Verdikt does not list or link offshore operators to US, Ontario or Alberta readers. 18+/19+ only (21+ in many US states) — gamble responsibly.