Quebec liquor board now blocking some casino domains? What's happening?

[CryptoDealer MTL]

Heads up for Quebec residents. Since around early April I've noticed certain offshore casino sites becoming intermittently inaccessible from my home connection (Vidéotron). I initially thought it was DNS issues but tested across two ISPs (Vidéotron + Bell Canada) and the pattern is consistent — same sites get blocked on both.

Looks like Loto-Québec's RACJ (Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux) has expanded their domain-blocking list. The Quebec regulator has historically tried to enforce restrictions on non-provincial gaming operators, and this looks like the latest iteration. Affected: I can't reach Stake.com directly, several other smaller crypto casinos. Unaffected for me: BC.Game, MyStake, Wild.io, 7Bit.

Anyone else in Quebec seeing this? And for the broader forum, how does this affect the typical Canadian player using offshore operators? Is this technically lawful and what are the workarounds people are using (besides VPN)? For reference I've been using Wild.io mostly and haven't seen issues with their domain.

[PayoutAnalyst CA]

This is the long-running RACJ vs offshore operators dispute. RACJ has been trying to enforce restrictions for years; the courts struck down some of their earlier enforcement attempts in 2018-2019 (the Mise-au-Jeu case). The current round appears to be DNS-level blocking via ISP cooperation rather than legal action against operators.

The practical effect for Quebec residents: certain domains intermittently unreachable. The legal effect is murky — Quebec law restricts offshore operators from advertising and from accepting Quebec residents, but the actual enforcement against players is essentially nonexistent. The blocking is more about making it inconvenient than illegal.

[Stats Paddock]

Ontario perspective: we have the iGaming Ontario regulated market specifically to keep this kind of jurisdictional friction at bay. The 45+ AGCO-registered operators have clear legal status here. Quebec's approach has historically been to keep gambling provincial-monopoly, which creates the offshore tension you're seeing.

Long term, Quebec may go the Ontario route. Politically less likely than economically inevitable in my view.