The Auditor General of Ontario is applauding the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) for the progress made after the regulated Ontario igaming market opened to private operators in April 2022.
The Auditor General, Shelley Spence, issued the annual report last week, the follow-up to recommendations to make OLG more competitive in the new environment submitted to OLG in a casinos, lotteries and internet-gaming report after the regulated market went live.
According to the AG Report, as of Nov. 15, 2024, OLG had fully implemented 32% (17) of those recommended actions and are in the process of implementing 38% (20).
The AG report harkens one back to comments OLG Chief Gaming Officer Dave Pridmore made to CDC Gaming in 2023 about how the competitive market was good for OLG.
“The newly regulated and competitive market has challenged OLG to think different and push the boundaries of possibilities, not just with our product offerings, but also by optimizing our teams and establishing more efficient processes to help our speed to market.
“The open market leveled the playing field for us. We went from being the only regulated operator in the province to one of many, who all had to adhere to the same rules. This is good for OLG and good for the customer.”
It’s a lesson for other provinces, like Alberta, currently in the process of implementing an Ontario-style igaming regulatory regime in their province.
Recommendations that OLG has implemented include the introduction of more igaming products and the timeline for their introduction, the expansion of more live game offerings (poker, blackjack) in collaboration with other provinces, assessing OLG’s staffing numbers to determine if it’s reasonable in relation to OLG’s mandate and responsibilities, break out casino operator fees as a separate line item in financial reporting to taxpayers, as well as integrate self-exclusion programs across OLG products.
The Ontario market currently has 50 licensed operators and 82 gaming websites operating the province, with total wagers of $18.4 billion in Q1 2024. The latest iGaming Ontario market report shone a spotlight on the domination of casino in the igaming market. Casino games, including slots, live and computer-based table games and peer-to-peer bingo, was 84 percent of total wagers ($15.5 billion) and 73 percent ($529 million) of gaming revenue.
The report found that in 2023, “OLG developed a comprehensive strategy on the introduction of new products and the timeline for their introduction. As part of this strategy since our 2022 audit, OLG began introducing games every week with new features to drive engagement. Between February 1, 2024, and April 30, 2024, OLG introduced 80 new games or about six new games per week.”
Said OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti, “We always welcome independent reviews of our business, which contribute to continuous improvement of our operations and performance.
“OLG has been actively working to implement the AG’s recommendations — close to 80 percent of the recommended actions have been fully implement or are in the process of being implemented. As the AG indicated, six recommendations are no longer applicable (for example, asking casino operators for consent to publicly disclose game payout data by casino, which the operators said no to).
“There are seven recommended actions that won’t be implemented for specific reasons, as outlined in our response to the AG (for example deciding not to implement additional track and monitor employee utilization and efficiency processes for all employees).”
