Tobique Gaming Commission: what the licence is, what it costs, where it works

The short version

The Tobique Gaming Commission (TGC) licenses online casino, betting and other remote gaming under the Tobique Gaming Act 2023, enacted by the Chief and Council of the Tobique First Nation on 13 October 2023. The first licences followed in the spring of 2024, and the regime now competes with Anjouan and Curaçao for new international brands.

• Who: Tobique First Nation (Neqotkuk), a Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) community in New Brunswick.
• Law: Tobique Gaming Act 2023, with regulations and codes of practice on AML and operations.
• Licences: B2C for operators, B2B for platform and content suppliers.
• Cost: no fee schedule on the Commission’s public pages; agents quote roughly €36,000 for the first year.
• Reach: international markets without their own licensing; not Ontario or other Canadian provincial markets.

Why a First Nation can issue gaming licences

The Commission bases its authority on the Tobique First Nation’s inherent right of self-government, which the Act links to section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982. The model is not new in Canada: the Kahnawake Gaming Commission near Montreal has licensed online gaming on a similar basis since the 1990s.

It is worth knowing the other side of the argument. Under the Criminal Code, the conduct and management of gaming in Canada is reserved to the provinces, and provincial regulators such as those in Ontario license online operators within their own borders. First Nation regulators rely on inherent-rights claims that, as far as public records show, no Canadian court has settled for online gaming. In practice the Tobique licence is used for players outside Canada, and operators treat it as an international permit rather than a Canadian one.

What the Commission publishes, and what it leaves to agents

The Commission’s website publishes its mission, a list of licence holders, its regulatory documents and a complaints procedure, and it points applicants to its appointed licensing administrator. Commercial details such as the fee schedule are communicated through that channel rather than on the Commission’s own pages.

Trade press reported in April 2024 that the Commission had published the Gaming Act 2023 together with regulations and codes of practice covering anti-money laundering and operations, and that part of its regulatory powers had been delegated to a private licensing administrator, Differentia Licensing Advisory Group. Licences are issued through authorised management companies or directly to licensees, a structure announced when the Commission was created. Keep that distinction in mind when reading any Tobique guide, including this one: the law and the licence register are official, the price list reaches the market through intermediaries.

Fees as quoted in 2026

Because the Commission does not display a fee schedule publicly, the figures below come from licensing agents’ guides published in 2026. They broadly agree on the order of magnitude, about €36,000 in year one and just under €20,000 a year afterwards, but they split the amounts differently.

Tobique fees as reported by licensing agents, checked September 2026

An earlier comparison published in June 2024 quoted €18,000 for the application and €18,000 plus €7,000 a year afterwards, so the structure has already been adjusted once. Advisers who add company formation, an outsourced MLRO and certification put the realistic first-year cost at roughly €43,000 to €60,000.

Scope: which products and which countries

One B2C licence covers online casino, sports betting, poker, live dealer games, lotteries, bingo and esports. A separate B2B licence covers suppliers of games, platforms and aggregation services; the first B2B licence, to a casino platform company, was reported in April 2024.

Geography is the real limit. The licence does not give access to regulated Canadian provincial markets such as Ontario or New Brunswick, and agents report that licensees must geo-block a mandated list of around 22 jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom and markets that run their own licensing systems, as well as sanctioned countries. Blocking is expected at both the IP and payment levels.

How an application runs

Agents describe a two-step process: a preliminary review of the applicant and its owners, usually five to ten working days, then a full review of the business before issuance. Four to eight weeks from a complete file is the range most often quoted.

Typical Tobique application path

A notable difference from Curaçao: agents report that a company incorporated outside Tobique is accepted, and there is no requirement for a local office, resident director or local staff. Operators often pair the licence with a company in another jurisdiction that hosts their support and payments functions.

Obligations once licensed

The Commission’s codes of practice set standards for fair play, player protection, AML controls and responsible gambling, and its website runs a complaints procedure for players. Agents list the following as standard obligations.

• An appointed money laundering reporting officer, which can be outsourced.
• KYC on players, transaction monitoring and sanctions screening, updated as FATF lists change.
• Responsible gambling tools and published terms that match the licensed domains.
• Maintained disclosure of key persons and beneficial owners, with notice of changes.
• Active geo-blocking of restricted markets and payment of the annual renewal before expiry.

Games, certification and supplier checks under Tobique

Operators must be able to show that games are fair: RNG certification from recognised laboratories such as GLI, iTech Labs or BMM is expected for proprietary content, and studios supply certificates for their own titles. Because a B2B licence category exists, it is sensible to ask each supplier, aggregators included, whether it holds a Tobique B2B licence or another licence the Commission accepts, and to keep the answers in your compliance file.

The mandatory restricted list makes lobby filtering more than a nice-to-have. Studios such as Evolution, Pragmatic Play, Nolimit City, Relax Gaming and Red Tiger apply their own country bans on top of the licence’s list. A casino game aggregator API that returns per-game metadata (studio, category, currencies, market) and accepts a country parameter at launch keeps both sets of restrictions enforced without manual work.

SoftAggregator supplies slots, crash games, live dealer games through its live casino API and a sportsbook integration on one seamless wallet, with 40,000+ games from 200+ providers. Currencies can be set per player or the site can be locked to one; demo launches use a separate getGameDemo call. Catalogue and currencies change continuously; the live list is in the API.

Who should consider Tobique

Tobique suits a brand that wants a newer regulator with a modern statute, a mid-range price and no local staffing, and whose players are in markets without local licensing. It is a weaker fit if you need broad mainstream banking from day one or if Canada itself is a target market.

Compare it with the Anjouan licence, which is cheaper and older, and the Curaçao LOK licence, which costs more and requires substance but is better known to payment partners. This guide is general information, not legal advice; use qualified counsel for your structure.

What operators ask about the Tobique licence

Sources and how current they are

Official facts come from the Tobique Gaming Commission’s website and the Tobique Gaming Act 2023 as reported at the time of publication. Fees, timelines and restricted-market details are not published on the Commission’s own pages; they come from licensing agents and trade press, named by type below.

• Tobique Gaming Commission website (about, licence holders, regulatory documents, complaints), checked 24 September 2026
• Tobique Gaming Act 2023, enacted by Chief and Council on 13 October 2023
• Trade press on the first licences and the first B2B licence, March–April 2024
• Jurisdiction comparison by a licensing firm, 26 June 2024 (earlier fee structure)
• Licensing agents’ Tobique guides published in 2026 (fee breakdowns, 4–8 week timeline, restricted list)
• Constitution Act, 1982, section 35; Criminal Code of Canada provisions on provincial gaming, for context

Last reviewed: 24 September 2026.