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.