A number of lottery retailers in the Greater Toronto Area have lost lottery seller licences after the provincial regulator found the stores were operating unapproved products.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) found that the lottery retailers were offering unapproved ‘Prime Slot’ branded electronic gaming machines.
The regulator stated that the provision of these products violated Ontario regulations around game integrity, player safety and the protection of minors and individuals, adding that unregulated gaming products have ‘increasingly proliferated’ in recent years.
Dr. Karin Schnarr, Chief Executive Officer and Registrar at the AGCO, said: “Unapproved gambling machines have no business being in convenience stores or other locations, particularly those that are available to children and youth.”
As Schnarr noted, authorities are particularly concerned about the potential for children and young people to play these games, which essentially amount to slot games but being offered in a lottery retailer location i.e. a convenience store.
The legal gambling age in Ontario is 19, and as it stands the province is the only one in Canada with an open market for betting, lotteries and casino gambling, with gaming in the rest of Canada’s provinces closed off to crown corporation lottery companies.
However, this is all set to change as Alberta is in the process of developing a framework for its own regulated, mulit-lcience betting market, which is expected to launch in 2026 – with a lot of anticipation for gaming stakeholders in Canada and further afield.
Despite new coming competition in 2022, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), a crown corporation, remains a key player in Ontario, not just in lotteries but also in betting and gaming.
This does mean that the operator has found itself subject to the same restrictions as private betting and gaming firms, like in 2022 when Ontario operators were ordered to not take any wagers on UFC tournaments.