Ratings are the overall scores from our full reviews. Every casino is iGaming Ontario licensed.

1. 888 Casino Ontario (4.3/5)

888 has the strongest Video Poker selection I found in Ontario, a genuine spread of Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild and multi-hand machines rather than the usual afterthought tucked behind the slots. The pay tables are easy to read before you commit, and the machines play fast on desktop. For a dedicated video poker player, this is the pick. Read our full 888 Casino Ontario review.

2. BetMGM Ontario (4.5/5)

BetMGM has the deepest overall library in Ontario, and that carries through to Video Poker: the main variants plus multi-hand formats where you play 3, 10 or even 50 hands at once. If raw choice is what you want, it leads, and the lobby filters make finding a specific machine quick. The standout rating reflects the whole casino, not just the video poker shelf. Read our full BetMGM Ontario review.

3. LeoVegas Ontario (4.4/5)

LeoVegas brings its Video Poker machines to mobile cleanly, so you can grind Jacks or Better on a phone without a cramped, fiddly layout. The hold buttons are big enough to hit accurately, which sounds minor until you’ve misclicked a hold on a smaller app. A strong mobile-first pick. Read our full LeoVegas Ontario review.

4. bet365 Ontario (4.3/5)

bet365 covers the core Video Poker variants dependably. It’s not the biggest range, but the staples are there, they load fast, and the play is clean with no fuss. If you mostly stick to Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild, it has you covered. Read our full bet365 Ontario review.

5. Caesars Ontario (4.3/5)

Caesars offers a solid Video Poker selection with the Caesars Rewards tie-in, so machine time earns loyalty value alongside any wins. The range is mid-pack rather than class-leading, but the rewards angle makes it worthwhile for regulars who play across the casino. Read our full Caesars Ontario review.

6. Casino Days Ontario (4.2/5)

Casino Days is casino-first and carries a respectable Video Poker shelf alongside its big slot lobby. The selection is narrower than 888 or BetMGM, but the core machines are present and the navigation is clean. A fine choice if video poker is part of a wider casino session. Read our full Casino Days Ontario review.

Video Poker is the thinking player’s slot. It looks like a slot machine, but it’s built on five-card draw poker, and your choices change the return, which is exactly why it carries some of the best odds in the casino. There is no dealer and no other players to beat. You just need to build the best poker hand you can.

The flow is simple. You bet, usually one to five coins, and the machine deals five cards. You decide which to hold and which to discard, the discards are replaced on the draw, and you’re paid for any qualifying poker hand. On the standard game that means a pair of Jacks or better, climbing through two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, and the jackpot hand, the royal flush.

One rule matters more than any other for beginners: always bet the maximum five coins. A royal flush pays 250 to 1 per coin on smaller bets, but jumps to 800 to 1 when you play max coins. That bonus is a big slice of the machine’s overall return, so betting short coins quietly throws away your edge. If five coins on a given machine is more than you want to risk, drop to a lower-denomination machine and still bet max, rather than betting one coin on a higher one.

Here is the skill that separates video poker players from everyone else: reading the pay table before you play. Two machines can look identical and carry wildly different returns, and the only way to tell them apart is the numbers on the screen.

The classic example is Jacks or Better. A “full-pay” 9/6 machine pays 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush, and with optimal play it returns 99.54%, one of the best bets in the building. A “short-pay” 8/5 machine drops those to 8 and 5, and the return falls to around 97.3%. Same game, same strategy, more than two percent worse, purely because of the pay table. The “9/6” and “8/5” shorthand always refers to the full house and flush payouts, so that’s the first thing I check.

The principle carries across every variant: higher payouts on the key hands mean a higher RTP. Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker and the rest all come in full-pay and short-pay versions, and the casino doesn’t advertise which is which. You have to look. At an iGaming Ontario casino the pay table is published and the outcomes are certified, so what you read is exactly what the machine returns over the long run. Two minutes spent comparing pay tables is the highest-value habit in the game.

Like Blackjack, Video Poker rewards correct decisions, and like Blackjack, the correct play for every hand has already been worked out. Play it well on a full-pay machine and the house edge shrinks to under half a percent. Play on instinct and you give up several percent without noticing.

Each variant has its own strategy chart, but a few rules carry most hands on Jacks or Better:

• Never break a made paying hand for a long shot. Keep the sure full house rather than chasing the royal.
• Hold a paying pair over a four-card flush or straight in most spots, since the pair pays now and can improve.
• Always keep four cards to a royal flush, even if it means breaking a flush or a straight. The royal payout is worth the gamble.
• With nothing, keep the high cards (Jack or above) and discard the rest, rather than holding random low cards.

The strategy is exact enough that many players keep a chart open while they play, which is completely legitimate, since there is no dealer to mind your pace. Drill it in the free demo mode first, where mistakes cost nothing, then move to real money once the holds become second nature. Get the pay table right and the strategy right, and video poker is about as fair as a casino game gets.

The casinos above carry several Video Poker machines, and the differences come down to wild cards and pay tables. Here are the ones worth knowing.

Jacks or Better

The original and the one to learn first. A pair of Jacks or higher pays, and the full-pay 9/6 version returns 99.54% with correct play. Master this and the others come easily.

Deuces Wild

All four 2s are wild, which shakes up the strategy completely and lifts the minimum paying hand to three of a kind. A genuine full-pay Deuces Wild machine can return over 100% with flawless play, though those pay tables are rare. The common versions run a little under.

Bonus, Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus

Variations that pay extra for specific four-of-a-kind hands, especially four Aces. The boosted top end is balanced by lower payouts elsewhere, usually on two pair, so the swings are bigger. Read the pay table carefully, because these come in many flavours.

Joker Poker and multi-hand

Joker Poker adds a single wild joker to the deck for its own strategy twist. Multi-hand machines let you hold once and play that hold across 3, 10, 50 or even 100 hands at the same time, multiplying both the action and the stake. Fun and fast, but mind your bankroll, because a 50-hand game is fifty bets per deal.

Here is the honest version: casino bonuses and Video Poker rarely work in your favour, and it pays to understand why before you opt in.

Two things work against you. First, iGaming Ontario doesn’t let casinos advertise bonuses and free spins to the public, so you will only see what is on offer after you register. Second, Video Poker barely counts toward wagering requirements. When a bonus says wager it 30 times, Slots contribute 100% while Video Poker often contributes 10% or even nothing, precisely because its high full-pay return makes casinos wary of attaching bonus money to it.

So a bonus you planned to clear on the machines can be all but impossible to turn into withdrawable cash. If Video Poker is your main game, don’t pick a casino on its bonus. Choose it on the range of machines and, above all, the pay tables on offer.

If you do take a promotion, read the game-contribution table in the terms first, since that line tells you whether Video Poker counts at all. Loyalty schemes like Caesars Rewards suit regulars better, crediting real-money play without the wagering trap. Bonus terms change often, so confirm the current details before you opt in. Our Interac casinos guide covers the fast banking that gets winnings out cleanly.

Every casino here is iGaming Ontario licensed, so the shortlist starts from legal, regulated and audited. From there I rank on what actually matters to a video poker player.

Variant range leads, because a casino with only one Jacks or Better machine isn’t a video poker home. I look for a genuine spread of Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker and multi-hand formats. Pay tables matter just as much, since a full-pay 9/6 machine is worth two percent more than a short-pay version of the very same game.

Then the practical side. Mobile and desktop play, because misclicking a hold on a cramped app costs real money, and the hold buttons need to be accurate. Lobby navigation, so you can actually find the machines rather than digging through the slots. And the rating you see is the full score from our hands-on brand review, where deposits, withdrawals, support and trust all count. A great machine range on a casino that pays slowly doesn’t make this list.

Video Poker’s high return on a full-pay machine makes it one of the fairer games in the casino, but a fast machine, and especially a multi-hand one playing fifty bets a deal, can run through a bankroll quickly. Every iGaming Ontario casino has to give you the tools to stay in control: deposit limits, loss limits, session-time reminders, cooling-off periods and self-exclusion. Set a deposit limit when you open the account, before you start dealing, not after a rough run.

Even the best machine keeps a house edge, and no session is ever due a royal flush. If gambling stops feeling like entertainment, help in Ontario is free and confidential through ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600, 24 hours a day. The AGCO regulates every casino on this page, so the safeguards are a legal requirement. Use them.

Prefer a different game? Each of our Canadian guides ranks the best licensed sites for it:

• Best Online Slots Casinos
• Best Online Blackjack Casinos
• Best Online Roulette Casinos
• Best Online Baccarat Casinos
• Best Live Dealer Casinos

For the bigger picture, see the best online casinos in Canada, the fastest payout casinos, and the best casino bonuses.