Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has come under heavy scrutiny from Bonnie Lysyk after publication of the Auditor General’s 2022 Annual Report.
Released yesterday (November 30), the report covered a range of issues in the Canadian province of Ontario, analysing how organisations are being run and the impact they are making on society.
Naturally, as a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, OLG was a focus of attention in the report. The firm is responsible for managing casinos in the province, as well as overseeing its lotteries and slot machines.
However, the audit found that “neither OLG nor the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is monitoring to ensure slot machines are connected to OLG’s central monitoring system, and that slot machines actually pay out 85% in winnings over the life of each machine, as per AGCO standards.”
Furthermore, as reported by the Toronto Sun, Auditor General Lysyk also accused OLG of failing to hold private casino operators to their contractual commitments, noting the agency renegotiated a 10-year reduction in revenue share with the West GTA casino operator from $5.8bn to $4bn.
“There is no reasonable rationale for the OLG to reduce the amounts this private operator contractually committed to in 2018, one year earlier,” said Lysyk.
“Further, this contract would have gone to another casino operator if the West GTA casino operator had submitted a $4-billion revenue projection in the first place.”
Lysyk also issued a stern reminder to OLG over its responsibilities to curb money laundering, noting that “reporting of suspicious transactions is low and varies among casinos” overseen by the organisation.
The Toronto Star reported earlier this week that Lysyk had hired “mystery shoppers” for a sting operation at four Ontario casinos in the Greater Toronto Area, Niagara Falls, and Windsor to test anti-money laundering measures.
