PointsBet is facing a five-day license suspension in Ontario for failing to report suspicious activity around Jontay Porter betting in a timely manner in 2024, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) announced Thursday. The agency issued a “Notice of Proposed Order” for the suspension, and PointsBet has 15 days to appeal.
The action is the first of its kind by the AGCO, which launched online sports betting and casino platforms in April 2022. It’s also the first in North America for a major operator, as no U.S. jurisdiction has attempted or succeeded in suspending a license of a major platform. In Tennessee, the regulator in 2021 suspended the license for Action Tennessee 24/7. The local, single-state company appealed and a judge ultimately ordered that the license be reinstated after Action 24/7 had been offline for about a week.
“PointsBet Canada is disappointed by the AGCO’s decision to propose a five-day suspension of our operator registration,” a PointsBet Canada spokesperson said in a statement to Covers. “We respectfully believe the proposed sanction is disproportionate given the circumstances, our subsequent corrective actions, and our strong compliance record, and we are carefully reviewing all options, including our right to a hearing before the independent License Appeal Tribunal.”
Porter, a former Toronto Raptors and D-League two-way player, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in July 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Porter shared insider information that allowed four bettors to win prop bets based on his performance in at least three games in January and March 2024. At the time, court documents revealed that several major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, reported suspicious activity to integrity monitors.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Porter from the league for life when the story broke, and a federal investigation followed. Federal prosecutors are recommending 41-51 months, and Porter’s sentencing hearing has been a moving target. The last scheduled date was Dec. 10, 2025, but District Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall delayed that two days prior, and no new date has been set.
Regulator points to ‘systemic failure’
While Porter was prosecuted in the U.S., Canadian authorities have so far taken no action.
In its press release, the AGCO called PointsBet’s actions an “alleged systemic failure to properly monitor, detect, document and report suspicious betting patterns” and that after allegations surfaced, it required licensed operators to “confirm whether they had offered bets on Porter and if they had detected and reported any suspicious betting activity. PointsBet, after significant delay, advised the AGCO it had not offered any such bets.”
The agency said it took further steps after Porter was indicted, and in October 2025 requested that operators “reconfirm” if they noted any suspicious activity around Porter markets.
“In response to this further inquiry — eighteen months after its initial response — PointsBet acknowledged for the first time it had indeed offered betting on Porter in those games,” reads the AGCO press release. The agency said the information was “central to the scheme” and “should have been detected and reported at the time the betting occurred.”
Per the statement to Covers, a PointsBet representative said the issue was “caused by human error during an organizational transition — not any intent to withhold information,” that corrective action has been taken, and that the company immediately reported its findings to the AGCO.
This is the second major action by the AGCO in a month — it issued a $251,000 fine to FanDuel in January because it said the operator “fail[ed] to appropriately identify and report unusual and suspicious betting and match-fixing activity” around table tennis. The fine is the biggest in AGCO history and the third biggest issued in North America.
AGCO: Operators are ‘first line of defense’
Taken together and historically, the actions reveal the premium the AGCO places on integrity and its reliance on operators to identify suspicious activity immediately.
“Regulated igaming operators act as a critical first line of defense in protecting the integrity of sport and Ontario’s sports betting market,” the AGCO wrote. “They are required to diligently monitor, detect and immediately report unusual and suspicious betting activity on their sites that may be indicative of bet-rigging.”
When the Porter allegations became public in April 2024, the AGCO released a statement that read in part, “This serious case of alleged insider betting and match-fixing was identified because regulated markets, like Ontario’s, require online gaming companies and independent integrity monitors to actively monitor and report suspicious betting, which then allows sports leagues, regulators, and law enforcement to respond appropriately.”
The AGCO previously took enforcement action against PointsBet in November 2023 for failing to meet responsible gaming requirements (CA$150,000) and in May 2022 for violating advertising policies. (CA$30,000).
PointsBet no longer operates in the U.S. after its U.S. assets were acquired by Fanatics Betting and Gaming in April 2024.
