Licensing and registration activities

The Licensing and Registration Branch (L&R) of the AGCO’s Operations Division is responsible for reviewing and processing applications for licences, permits, authorizations and registrations for the sectors regulated by the AGCO. Eligibility Officers, Senior Eligibility Officers and Managers review applications and supporting materials to assess an applicant’s eligibility to hold a particular licence, permit, authorization or registration. When necessary, they enlist the services of additional AGCO departments to facilitate further review or investigation of an application, such as the Regulatory Compliance Branch (RCB), the OPP Investigation and Enforcement Bureau (IEB), and the Audit and Financial Investigations Branch (AFI).

Additionally, L&R reviews and processes applications regarding renewing all licences, permits, authorizations, registrations and amendment applications received to amend or update information pertaining to an establishment or licensee.

As part of the AGCO’s risk-based licensing approach, L&R considers various factors in its review. These factors include an applicant’s type of business, location, compliance history and experience. Some establishments pose a greater risk to public safety, public interest and/or non-compliance with the law. Additionally, when reviewing an application, past conduct, financial responsibility, experience/training and honesty/integrity of an applicant are considered. If the Registrar believes that the issuance of a licence or registration is not in the public interest, the Registrar may issue a Notice of Proposal (NOP) to review or refuse to the applicant or licensee, who may request a hearing on the NOP before the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT).

During this assessment, L&R uses AGCO Board–approved criteria to assess the risk(s) posed to public safety and public interest and non-compliance with the law. All potential risks and concerns are reviewed to determine if the licence, permit, authorization or registration should

have a Level I, Level II or Level III risk designation or no designation at all. A risk designation ensures the AGCO focuses the appropriate resources towards the licensee and the establishment to ensure compliance is always maintained. If the Registrar believes that a licensee may require additional assistance or support to remain compliant with the applicable acts and/or the Registrar’s Standards, additional conditions may be attached to their licence, permit, authorization or registration. L&R performs risk-based assessments during the lifetime of all licences, permits, authorizations and registrations to ensure potential risks posed by a licensee or establishment are considered and evaluated.

The following tables outline the number of licences and registrations issued during the fiscal year. It is important to note that the following tables represent applications that have been approved and issued, not all applications submitted. In addition to this, some of the variance is due to the fact that tables now also show renewal and amended licences and registrations.

Table 7—Liquor licences issued, renewed and amended

Table 8—Gaming registrations issued, renewed and amended

Note: The “AGCO Subsidiary” indicated in the table above is the registration for the Lottery Subsidiary iGaming Ontario.

Table 9—Charitable lottery licences issued, renewed and amended

Note:

• Due to this sector transitioning to iAGCO in October 2021, the numbers reported for 2020–21 vary from the 2020–21 annual report.
• The Social Event Gaming Licence was launched in October 2021; there are no numbers to report for the 2020–2021 fiscal year.
• The Special Occasion Gaming Licence was launched in October 2020, resulting in low numbers issued.
• The Social Gaming Licence is not issued under the charitable component of the Criminal Code. All wagers under this licence are paid out to winners and this is not a charitable fundraising opportunity.