Throughout fiscal year 2023-24, the AGCO advanced a range of initiatives aimed at supporting Ontario’s dynamic liquor sector. These activities aligned with key government priorities while continuing to ensure alcohol is sold, served, and delivered responsibly. 

• On December 14, 2023, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to modernizing the alcohol sector, with plans for liquor retail expansion in Ontario.¹ This expansion, the largest in almost a century, aims to introduce a surge of new retailers into the market to offer consumers greater convenience and choice, all while ensuring the sector operates with honesty, integrity and in the broader public interest. Acting as a critical leader in facilitating a stable transition of an expanded market, the AGCO continues to collaborate with the government in the development of a new regulatory framework.
• In recognition of the national and international significance of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the AGCO extended operating hours for the sale and service of alcohol, providing support to the hospitality and tourism sector.
• The AGCO continues to administer the Police Report and Last Drink Programs in partnership with the police. This is part of supporting a coordinated approach to compliance activities, which places significant emphasis on working with local community partners, including police, fire services, municipal by-law, and public health units.
• The use of mystery shoppers in the grocery sector continues to be an effective tool to aid in evaluating how grocery stores are performing in preventing youth access to alcohol. Throughout 2023–24, the AGCO expanded the Mystery Shopper Program to cover all liquor licensees operating within the province.

Throughout fiscal year 2023-24, the AGCO advanced a range of initiatives to support Ontario’s evolving gaming sector, including charitable gaming, Land-Based Commercial Gaming, igaming, and lottery. These activities support key government priorities, supporting healthy and sustainable gaming industry while maintaining a focus on responsible gambling and player protection.

Charitable Gaming

The AGCO implemented several initiatives to provide new opportunities for eligible organizations, responding to the evolving needs of stakeholders in the sector. These included:

• Increasing the number of online raffles that charities can conduct and manage at the same time from two to four.
• Establishing a framework permitting hospital foundation charitable electronic 50/50 raffle (e-raffle) tickets to be sold in person in Ontario convenience stores, by convenience store retail staff.
• Ontario and Nova Scotia collaborated to establish Canada’s first inter-provincial charitable raffle lottery licence, a milestone in the AGCO’s efforts to modernize charitable gaming.

Land-Based Commercial Gaming

Over the course of 2023-2024, the AGCO has undertaken a range of activities to advance its Gaming Modernization Strategy:

• Numerous workshops were held on significant reforms to the AGCO’s casino eligibility and casino compliance models, which have been identified for potential implementation in 2024/25. 
• The requirements, data access and analytical feasibility of a Regulatory Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Operational Dashboard were all confirmed this fiscal year. The Dashboard will be used to better focus agency resources and the current target for the launch of the alpha version is Q1-2024/25, with subsequent versions to be iterative in nature and launched at appropriate intervals.

iGaming

Since the launch of Ontario’s regulated igaming market in April 2022, the AGCO has maintained focus on ensuring the regulatory model continues to meet the objectives of supporting a competitive igaming market that protects consumers and provides them with choice.

• In August 2023, the AGCO announced changes to the Registrar’s Standards for iGaming to further restrict the use of athletes, celebrities and other figures likely expected to appeal to minors in igaming advertising and marketing activities. These changes were implemented to build on the existing regulatory framework for igaming by further safeguarding children and youth who can be particularly susceptible to advertising content featuring prominent athlete and celebrity endorsements. AGCO further released, in early-February 2024, a supplementary guidance document setting out additional clarity with respect to the amended Standard, helping support a smooth implementation of the changes.
• For the one year anniversary of the Ontario igaming market, the AGCO partnered with iGaming Ontario to conduct an Ipsos study. The study showed over 85 per cent of respondents who gambled online in Ontario were now doing so on regulated sites.
• Collaboration with international jurisdictions on tackling the Unregulated iGaming Market continued in 2023-24 and a comprehensive strategy is in the process of being drafted to limit industry access to the unregulated market and increase public awareness by delivering a second generation of high impact, coordinated and relevant regulatory activities.

Lottery

In September 2022, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) announced plans to implement new self-serve terminals (SSTs) in lottery retail locations. Throughout 2023, the AGCO supported the implementation of SSTs, including making changes to the Registrar’s Standards for Gaming: Lottery Sector to enable the launch of SSTs starting in February 2024, with the rest of the SSTs launching across the province in 2024/25.

As part of the AGCO’s ongoing commitment to protecting Ontario’s racehorses, enhancing the integrity of racing and providing a regulatory framework appropriate for today’s racing industry, AGCO announced and implemented a number of equine welfare reforms in 2023-24. These reforms included:

• Banning certain medications and substances in horses participating in an Official Workout (Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse) or in a Qualifying Race (Standardbred);
• A new rule requiring licensed trainers to report all stabling locations they operate under their licence, including any location changes to the Registrar within five (5) calendar days.
• A revision of 22.19 of the Standardbred Rules of Racing to update language and the penalty structure that prohibits a driver’s foot to make contact with the horse in any manner, aligning it more closely with the urging provisions.
• Reinstated breathalyzer testing for horseracing participants in Safety Sensitive Positions, including drivers, jockeys, valets, and track maintenance personnel and resumed testing for the Human Alcohol and Drug Program, given that COVID-19 public health restrictions are no longer in effect.
• The AGCO made permanent a number of temporary COVID-19 rule amendments to provide additional flexibility and positive impact to the sustainability of the industry.

In 2023-24 The AGCO focused on supporting cannabis retailers by fostering innovation and flexibility, reducing burden, and by seeking opportunities to combat the illicit market.

• The AGCO is working collaboratively with provincial partners, including the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), Ontario Provincial Police, and government to better understand the illicit market and identify areas where the AGCO can support the government’s objective of combating the illicit cannabis market.  While authorized cannabis retailers and the OCS have made substantial inroads in Ontario as the only legal sources of recreational cannabis, illicit cannabis continues to be an issue in the province and is estimated to make up approximately 40 per cent of Ontario’s cannabis market¹.
• Since 2019, the AGCO has been working with the OCS to implement a new Point-of-Sale (POS) Data Reporting Platform to automate and standardize monthly regulatory reporting processes for licensed cannabis stores. In 2023, the AGCO announced that starting in July 2024, all cannabis retailers will have their sales data automatically submitted directly to the OCS data platform and will be subject to new Standards for their regulatory reporting requirements.
• An internal Data Driven Compliance application has been developed to make better use of data to support the inspectors’ ability to focus their activities on entities that present the highest risk of non-compliance. Work is under way to launch the application in the cannabis sector in 2024/25.
• Enhanced Cannabis Application Pre-Screening Interviews continue to be essential in supporting the honesty and integrity of licensees, registrants, and authorization holders and allow for immediate flagging of any criminal associations. In 2023, Eligibility and Major Investigations conducted 468 cannabis-related investigations and noticed a significant decrease in the identification of problematic applications. This is attributed to the registered cannabis market maturing and the message being conveyed within the cannabis industry that the OPP was conducting thorough background investigations on applicants and entities.
• The AGCO continues to use the Mystery Shopper Program to identify retailers who present an increased risk of permitting youth access. During this fiscal year, the AGCO enhanced the Mystery Shopper Program to support enhanced oversight of cannabis retailers operating close to high schools.
• To better support cannabis retailers as the market evolves, the AGCO supported the Ministry of the Attorney General in making legislative changes to the Cannabis Act, 2018 to enable the transfer of Retail Store Authorizations from one licensed operator to another, and to allow the sale of cannabis from one operator to another in prescribed circumstances. These amendments received Royal Assent in Spring 2023 and will be followed by regulatory amendments to establish the framework for authorization transfers and inventory sales.