The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has issued NorthStar Gaming (Ontario) Inc. an Order of Monetary Penalty of CA$100,000 for anti-money laundering (AML) failures involving a single high-risk customer who deposited CA$189,395 over roughly 15 months.
The regulator found NorthStar did not classify the customer as high risk despite indicators linked to the player’s profession, and did not apply the additional controls its own policy required once deposits passed the operator’s own CA$25,000 threshold.
“Operators are the first line of defence against criminal activity in Ontario’s gaming market. Anti-money laundering controls must be more than policies on paper.”
Dr. Karin Schnarr, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, AGCO
What the AGCO found
The customer opened an account with NorthStar in March 2024. Deposits crossed the CA$25,000 mark that same month, the point at which NorthStar’s own AML programme called for enhanced due diligence on the account.
Those checks were not carried out. Between June 2024 and June 2025 the account took in approximately CA$189,395 in deposits. The AGCO found that NorthStar had the means to monitor and restrict the transactions and did not use them, and that the operator did not act on the risk signals the account was generating.
The failure was not a gap in policy. NorthStar had the threshold and the escalation procedure written down. The regulator’s finding is that the operator did not apply them to this account.
The player and Project Outsource
The customer was later charged in connection with Project Outsource, an Ontario law enforcement operation targeting criminal activity in the towing industry. That connection is what turns an unchecked deposit pattern into a case the regulator will treat as a market integrity issue rather than a paperwork lapse.
The AGCO has said little about how it identified the account. Operators in Ontario are required to report suspicious transactions and to monitor for indicators including a customer’s occupation, source of funds and deposit velocity.
NorthStar’s response
NorthStar has accepted the regulator’s findings rather than contest them publicly.
“We take our AML obligations seriously and we accept responsibility for the matters identified in this Order.”
Corey Goodman, Chief Executive Officer, NorthStar Gaming
NorthStar operates NorthStarBets.ca in Ontario and has held a registration in the province since the market opened to private operators in April 2022.
The second AGCO order against NorthStar in two years
This is not the operator’s first penalty from the AGCO. In October 2024 the regulator issued NorthStar an order totalling CA$30,000: CA$10,000 for an alleged breach of Standard 3.02, which requires that games on gaming sites are offered only within Ontario, and CA$20,000 for repeatedly delaying data and documents requested by the Registrar, under Standards 1.01 and 1.13.
In December 2024 the AGCO withdrew the CA$10,000 portion after NorthStar supplied documentation confirming it had not violated Standard 3.02. The company agreed to pay the remaining CA$20,000.
The regulator has issued comparable orders to larger operators in the same market. It penalised theScore CA$105,000 over its handling of a patron’s high-risk gambling, and BetMGM Canada CA$110,000 for offering cash to induce new customers.
What happens next
NorthStar may request a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal, an independent adjudicative body under Tribunals Ontario, within 15 days of receiving the order. Goodman’s statement suggests the company does not intend to.
For the rest of Ontario’s registered operators, the finding sets a clear test. The AGCO did not penalise NorthStar for lacking an AML framework. It penalised the operator for having one and leaving it unused while a single account moved close to CA$190,000. Any operator whose enhanced due diligence triggers exist mainly in a policy document now has a documented example of what the regulator does when those triggers are ignored.
Source: Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario
