Inactive casino account in Ontario: what happens to the money you left on it

An inactive casino account in Ontario still holds your money. If you stopped playing with a balance left on a licensed site, the province’s rules say it remains owed to you, even once the account has been frozen for lack of use. What they leave open is the rest: how long before the freeze, whether a monthly fee chips away at it, and how you get it out.

We read the Ontario terms of ten licensed brands, most recently on November 8, 2026, and set them against the AGCO standards. The gaps are wide enough that the same quiet year costs nothing on one site and a monthly charge on another. This guide covers Ontario only.

What the AGCO asks of a dormant casino account

Every site registered in Ontario follows the Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming, and a short passage of them deals with deactivated and dormant accounts. The line that matters most is the last one: when an account goes dormant, or is deactivated by you, the operator or the regulator, you must still be able to get back whatever the account owes you (standard 3.22).

A few duties sit around it. The operator has to make reasonable efforts to tell you that money remains in a dormant account (3.17). You can deactivate your own account whenever you like (3.18), and records are kept even after an account is removed (3.21). While an account is open, your balance and transaction history have to stay available to you (3.15).

Notice what is missing: a number. The standards set no period of inactivity, no fee and no deadline for the warning. Each operator writes those details into its own terms, which is why the table further down varies so much.

Dormant, deactivated or simply logged out?

In the AGCO’s definitions, a dormant account is temporarily frozen because nobody has used it, so it can no longer be logged into or played on. A deactivated account is no longer available to you at all, whoever asked for it. Neither word moves ownership of the money.

The automatic log-out after a few idle minutes is a separate rule. Standard 4.30 requires it for security, and at Monopoly Casino 15 minutes without activity means typing your password again. Your balance has nothing to do with it.

One case does hold the cash itself. When the Registrar asks for an account to be deactivated, AGCO guidance written for OLG’s own iGaming site says the funds should stay put until the AGCO or the OPP has finished investigating. That is an investigation, not a forgotten account.

How long before an Ontario casino account goes inactive?

Anywhere from six months to four years, depending on the site. The table below follows the terms each brand publishes for Ontario, from the shortest delay to the longest, with what counts as activity and what the text says about your money. Every brand comes from Ontario’s list of licensed casino sites.

Brand	Inactive after	What keeps it active	Fee	Your balance, per the terms
PlayOJO	6 months without access; dormant and frozen after 48 months without a log-in	Accessing the account	Fee Up to $5 a month once inactive, email 30 days before the first charge	Withdraw by logging in; a dormant account is reopened through support
888casino	365 days without a log-in	Logging in	Fee $8 a month while the balance is positive, email 30 days before	Withdrawable at any time, subject to checks; fee refunds decided case by case
bet365	365 days	A deposit, a sports bet or casino play (a log-in alone does not count)	Fee $4 or 5% of the balance when it turns dormant, whichever is higher, every 28 days	Paid back to the last payment method or a verified bank account in your name
LeoVegas	12 months without access, with a real-money balance	Accessing the account	None stated	Notice at least 30 days before; account may be frozen; balance refunded by direct payment
theScore Bet	12 months without a log-in	Logging in	None stated	Opted out of bonuses; unclaimed balances “may be forfeited,” per applicable laws
PokerStars	24 months with a positive balance	A log-in, log-out or transaction	None stated	Repaid to the last payment method used, or another approved one
DraftKings	3 years without a log-in	Logging in	None stated	You are told what is left; account closed if you do not reply; balance stays recoverable
Monopoly Casino	3 years without a log-in (its definitions section says one year without activity)	Logging in	None stated	Account closed; funds forfeited after 120 days of contact attempts, sent to the regulator where required
Caesars	3 years with no log-in, play or funding (inactive), then dormant	Logging in with play or funding	None stated	Recoverable, “subject to escheatment” under unclaimed-property laws
BetMGM	4 years with no activity	A log-in plus a withdrawal, deposit or real-money wager	None stated	Not addressed in the terms

Delays and fees as written in each brand’s Ontario terms, in Canadian dollars. Terms change: check the version shown to you at log-in.

Two details are easy to miss. Activity is not defined the same way everywhere: at 888 or theScore Bet a simple log-in resets the clock, while bet365 needs a deposit, a bet or a game, so signing in to check your balance does not count. And some sites work in two stages: PlayOJO calls an account inactive after six months, then freezes it as dormant only after 48.

Clauses like these are part of how we score a casino’s terms. A short delay is not a fault in itself, but paired with a fee it earns a line in any review.

Inactivity fees and the balance that shrinks

Three of the ten brands can charge for a quiet account. 888 takes $8 a month while the balance is positive, after an email 30 days before the account turns inactive. PlayOJO may take $5 a month, emailing 30 days before the first charge.

bet365 deducts $4 or 5% of the balance at the time the account turns dormant, whichever is higher, every 28 days, starting 28 days after its first attempt to reach you.

None of these fees creates a debt: each one stops at zero. But a $40 balance at bet365 is gone about nine months after the first notice, and 888’s text says a balance smaller than the fee is simply reduced to zero. 888 does add that you can ask for fees to be refunded, a request it decides case by case.

Bonus money follows its own rules. theScore Bet and Monopoly Casino opt dormant accounts out of every promotion, and PlayOJO removes an unredeemed OJO Plus balance after 180 days of inactivity. Standard 3.22 protects the balance owed to you, not the bonuses, which is why the last column of the table matters most.

Getting your money back from an inactive account

The route is the same at every site, even if the screens differ.

1. Start from the right site. Several brands publish other terms for players outside Ontario, sometimes with a fee the Ontario version leaves out. The account you are after sits on the brand’s Ontario site, the one iGaming Ontario lists.
2. Try to log in, then contact support. 888 and PlayOJO let a log-in reopen an inactive account. LeoVegas asks you to go through support, as does PlayOJO once an account has reached its dormant stage. Give the email and username you used.
3. Expect a fresh identity check. No withdrawal is paid until the site has confirmed who is withdrawing (standard 5.70), and the documents on file may have expired since. The KYC check a casino can repeat usually takes a recent ID and proof of address.
4. Read the new terms. Material changes are accepted at your next log-in (3.11), so the version you agree to on your return may not be the one you signed up under.
5. Pick a payout method that still works. bet365 checks that your last payment method is still valid and otherwise pays into a verified bank account in your name. An expired card is a common snag, and Interac e-Transfer withdrawals are often the simplest way out.

If the balance looks lower than you remember, ask for the transaction history (3.15). Every fee should show up as a line of its own.

When support says the money is gone

Some clauses go further than a fee. theScore Bet writes that unclaimed balances in dormant accounts “may be forfeited,” in accordance with applicable laws. Monopoly Casino closes a dormant account and forfeits what remains after 120 days of trying to reach you, sending the funds to the regulator where the law requires it.

Caesars, for its part, makes recovery “subject to escheatment” under unclaimed-property laws, wording common in U.S. contracts. All three refer back to the law or the regulator, and in Ontario the standard on that point is plain: the balance owed to you must stay recoverable (3.22).

If support refuses, ask which clause it relies on, then file a formal complaint and keep the reference number. The site’s decision can take up to 90 days. If that process ends without a fix, you can complain to the AGCO online through iAGCO; a complaint about responsible gambling, suspected illegal activity or advertising can go to the AGCO straight away.

The regulator checks whether the operator followed its standards and can sanction it, but it cannot order a refund or recover money for you. How a complaint moves from the casino to the AGCO is set out step by step, and independent legal advice is the next resort.

Leaving for good? Close the casino account at zero

A dormant account is what drifting away leaves behind. Closing on purpose leaves less to chance: withdraw everything, wait until the money lands (how long a casino withdrawal takes depends on the method), then ask for the account to be deactivated, which you can do at any time (3.18). bet365, for one, closes an empty dormant account without any fee.

Keep the final email and a screenshot of the zero balance. On any account you leave open, keep your email address current, since dormancy warnings go there.

If you are stepping back because gambling is taking more room than you meant to give it, closing one account will not stop you opening another. BetGuard, Ontario’s centralized self-exclusion, shuts every regulated site at once. And should you come back one day, the Canadian online casinos open to you in each province are listed against their official register.

Questions about inactive casino accounts