Poker at Loto-Québec: how OK POKER works online

Search "poker Loto-Québec" and you land on OK POKER, the online poker room that Loto-Québec runs on lotoquebec.com. It is the only online poker the province authorises, it lives in the same account as your Lotto Max tickets and your Mise-o-jeu+ bets, and its player pool is a lot smaller than at the big international rooms. This guide covers who you actually play against, which games and stakes are on offer, the tournament schedule, what the rake costs and how money gets in and out. All figures come from Loto-Québec's own pages, checked on November 6, 2026.

If you are looking for a live game instead, our guide to Montreal poker rooms covers the Casino de Montréal room, Playground in Kahnawake and the rest. For Loto-Québec's draw games on the same account, our guide to Québec 49 covers the prizes and odds.

Who can play OK POKER

The rules are the same as for everything else on lotoquebec.com. You must be 18 or older, live in Quebec and be physically in Quebec when you log in. A location check runs at sign-in, so a weekend in Ottawa or Plattsburgh means no poker until you are back. To play for real money, you also have to complete registration and validate your identity.

You can play on the desktop software or the OK POKER app. The app listing promises multi-tabling, anonymous tables, table chat and customer service in French 24/7. Our guide to online casino apps in Quebec covers Loto-Québec's other apps and what the app stores allow.

Shared player pool: who is at the table

This is the question most Quebec players ask first, and the answer is no, you are not only playing other Quebecers.

The network went live in December 2010, built with GTECH G2, and at launch it was open only to Quebec residents. In February 2011, BCLC's PlayNow.com joined, and the trade press put it simply: players in British Columbia would now play at the same tables as players in Quebec. In April 2012, Manitoba Lotteries announced that its own site would launch on "a peer-to-peer poker network connecting Manitoba players with those in British Columbia and Quebec."

Loto-Québec's current app listing confirms the result: it advertises "players from Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba to compete with." The lotoquebec.com FAQ also says poker uses "le même réseau de joueurs" with other provinces, in an answer about moving to Ontario or British Columbia. The two pages do not name exactly the same provinces, so read them as confirming a shared provincial network rather than a precise list.

What the pool does not include: players from private or offshore sites, or from Ontario's regulated market. It is a provincial lottery network, so traffic is a fraction of what the global rooms see. Loto-Québec does not publish player counts.

Games and stakes

Loto-Québec's limits page lists these games:

• Texas Hold'em, Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo in no limit, pot limit and fixed limit.
• Five-card draw and the 7-A "Italiano" draw variant in pot limit and fixed limit.
• Five-card and seven-card stud.

In practice, Hold'em carries the room. One day's tournament schedule had 34 Hold'em events and 2 Omaha events.

Cash game stakes start at $0.02/$0.04, according to the app listing, and the rake table runs up to $50/$100 in no limit and $100/$200 in fixed limit. That table tells you which levels the software supports, not which ones will have a game running on a Tuesday night.

Buy-ins follow fixed rules. In no limit and pot limit, the minimum is 20 big blinds and the maximum is 100. At a $1/$2 table, that is $40 to $200. In fixed limit, the minimum is 10 times the small limit and there is no maximum.

Tournaments

Tournaments start at $0.55, per the app listing. The formats are the usual ones: scheduled multi-table tournaments, sit and gos of up to 8 players (an 8-player Hold'em sit and go pays 50%, 30% and 20%), satellites, Slot & Go, bounty events ("Chasseur de tête") and rebuy and add-on events. Rebuys are generally open until the first break, and registration closes six minutes before the start unless late registration is offered.

The daily guaranteed schedule. On one day, the list had 36 events between 7 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. A few landmarks:

Bigger events. The Tournois Méchants guarantee up to $100,000 and run on the first Sunday of each month, with qualifiers available at any time. Slot & Go tournaments advertise up to $75,000. Super Jeudis and Vendredi royal are listed as guaranteed weekly events, and Poursuite Poker is a monthly leaderboard for cash game players with 100 cash prizes. Loto-Québec does not post amounts for all of these on the events page, so check the lobby before you plan your evening around one.

Rake: what the house takes

Loto-Québec publishes its full rake table, which is more than many rooms do.

• Cash games: up to 5% of the pot, with a cap per hand. No rake is collected if the hand ends during the first betting round.
• Micro stakes: at 2/4 cents, 1 cent per 10 cents in the pot, capped at $3; at 5/10 cents, 1 cent per 20 cents.
• Most no limit and pot limit tables (12/25 cents to $25/$50): 5 cents per $1 in the pot, capped at $1.50 with 2 to 4 players and $3 with 5 to 10.
• $50/$100 and up: capped at $2 short-handed (2 or 3 players) and $5 with 4 or more.
• Fixed limit: caps from $1.50 at the lower levels to $3 and $5 higher up.
• Tournaments: the fee is capped at 10% of your contribution to the prize pool. A $10 + $1 event puts $10 in the pool and $1 to the house. Some events on the schedule charge less, such as $22 + $2 and $12 + $1.

The caps are what decide your cost at a full table. A $3 cap at a six-handed $0.25/$0.50 game means big pots pay the same as medium ones, so the rake bites hardest in small pots.

Bad beat and high hand jackpots

OK POKER runs two progressive jackpots, the Main crève-cœur (bad beat) and the Main haute (high hand). The bad beat rules are published:

• It runs on reserved Texas Hold'em tables, which you pick from the lobby, and grows from bets at those tables until someone hits it.
• The main prize needs four eights or better to lose; the smaller "Microlot" needs four twos or better. For quads, both your hole cards must make the pair.
• The losing hand takes 50%, the winning hand 25%, and the other 25% is split equally among everyone else dealt in.

Bonuses and loyalty

The OK POKER home page advertises $10 on registration, and a separate promotion page offers $30 to new customers, with conditions in a PDF. Read the conditions on the page you sign up from, since the two offers are not described the same way.

For regulars, there are PXP points and loyalty tournaments, but no published rakeback rate. Poker play does not earn lotoquebec.com casino points; the FAQ lists OK POKER among the excluded products.

Deposits and withdrawals

Poker money sits in your single lotoquebec.com balance, shared with every other product, so there is no separate poker wallet to fund.

• Deposit methods: Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit cards from a Canadian institution (prepaid, business, Capital One and MBNA cards are refused), Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit, Interac e-Transfer, Interac Online (TD only), Argent Web coupons sold by lottery retailers, and bill payment to "Espacejeux (Loto-Québec)".
• Minimums: $20, or $10 with coupons, which are capped at $500 a week.
• Speed: most Interac e-Transfers land in under a minute. Bill payments take three to five business days.
• Watch out: Interac e-Transfer works with most big banks but not Desjardins or Banque Laurentienne. Desjardins members usually end up on a debit card or bill payment.
• Withdrawals: to a personal or joint chequing or savings account in your name, normally in three to five business days. Any single prize over $100,000 must be claimed in person.

Your weekly deposit limit sets your maximum deposit, which is also your first line of defence. Set it before your first session.

OK POKER or a private site?

Private poker sites that accept Quebec players are licensed by Kahnawake or by offshore regulators, not by Quebec. They usually have bigger fields and more games, and they also come with their own terms, banking and protections. Our comparison of Loto-Québec and offshore casinos sets out the trade-offs. This is not legal advice.

That picture could change. During the fall 2026 campaign, both the Liberals and the Parti Québécois, which formed a minority government after the October 5 election, backed licensing private online operators. Pokerfuse noted that an open Quebec market could one day share a pool with Ontario and Alberta. No law has been passed yet, and OK POKER remains the only authorised online room.

Play within limits

Online poker is fast, and multi-tabling makes it faster. Use the deposit and time limits in your lotoquebec.com account, take a break or self-exclude if you need to. Jeu: aide et référence is free, confidential and open 24/7 at 1 800 461-0140. More resources are on our responsible gambling page.

Sources: Loto-Québec, OK POKER home page, Loto-Québec, OK POKER rake, Loto-Québec, betting limits, Loto-Québec, how to play in tournaments, Loto-Québec, daily guaranteed tournaments, Loto-Québec, OK POKER events, Loto-Québec, bad beat jackpot, Loto-Québec, OK POKER new player offer, Loto-Québec, lotoquebec.com FAQ, Loto-Québec, OK POKER app listing (App Store), InterGame, Loto-Québec and GTECH G2 launch regulated poker network (December 2010), InterGame, BCLC launches poker site (February 2011), Manitoba Lotteries, partnership with British Columbia (April 2012, PDF), Pokerfuse, Québec's two leading parties back regulated online gaming (September 2026). Loto-Québec pages checked November 6, 2026.