The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is seeking to sideline sports betting operator PointsBet Canada for five days, saying the company failed to properly flag and report questionable wagers connected to a high-profile NBA gambling controversy.
On Thursday (February 12), the province’s gambling watchdog issued a Notice of Proposed Order that would temporarily suspend PointsBet’s online gaming registration. Regulators describe the lapse as a “systemic failure,” alleging the operator did not adequately monitor, detect, document or escalate unusual betting tied to former NBA player Jontay Porter.
AGCO moves to suspend PointsBet for failing to report suspicious NBA bets on Jontay Porter: https://t.co/Rd9RnVCS4X pic.twitter.com/N6pmzSA2Wm
— Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (@Ont_AGCO) February 12, 2026
The matter traces back to early 2024, when concerns emerged that Porter had been involved in an insider betting scheme linked to his playing time and on-court performance in Toronto Raptors games. As the allegations surfaced, the AGCO directed all regulated sportsbooks in Ontario to determine whether they had offered markets on Porter and to report any suspicious betting activity.
How the AGCO investigation into PointsBet Canada’s NBA betting failures unfolded
According to the regulator, PointsBet was slow to respond and initially told officials it had not offered wagers on Porter. Months later, after a U.S. Department of Justice indictment laid out details of the broader scheme, the AGCO again instructed operators to comb through their records.
Eighteen months after its original reply, PointsBet acknowledged that it had in fact taken bets on Porter’s games. After examining the company’s wagering data, the AGCO concluded the operator’s internal controls should have detected and reported unusual betting patterns when they occurred. That reporting, the regulator says, never happened.
Under Ontario’s iGaming framework, licensed sportsbooks are expected to serve as an early warning system for threats to sports integrity. They must promptly alert leagues, independent integrity monitors and law enforcement if betting activity suggests match-fixing, insider information or other forms of manipulation.
“Safeguarding the integrity of sports and Ontario’s sports betting market is a top priority for the AGCO,” said AGCO CEO and Registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr. “We require all operators to have robust systems and comprehensive staff training in place to reliably detect and report suspicious activity.”
PointsBet has faced regulatory trouble in Ontario before. The AGCO fined the company in 2022 over advertising violations and again in 2023 for failing to meet responsible gambling requirements.
The proposed suspension is not final. Under Ontario’s rules, an operator that receives a proposed order has 15 days to challenge the decision before the Licence Appeal Tribunal, an independent adjudicative body within the province’s tribunal system.
The wider NBA scandal ultimately led to Porter receiving a lifetime ban from the league in 2024 after an internal investigation found he had violated gambling rules. Legal proceedings and related fallout tied to the case have continued since, keeping the spotlight on how betting operators and regulators respond to integrity risks.
Featured image: PointsBet / NBA
