A Collaborative Effort
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has announced it is working to tackle unlicensed gambling in Ontario.
In an annual report of the financial year that finished on 31 March 2024, the provincial regulator said that it had spent the year working with countries around the world to address unregulated gambling.
The regulatory body is working on limiting industry access to the unregulated market and raising awareness of the grey market. The AGCO aims to do this “by delivering a second generation of high-impact, coordinated and relevant regulatory activities.” This statement taken from the report suggests they will implement widely effective strategies organised across multiple bodies and tackle the current problems caused by unregulated gambling.
The specifics of the strategy are a mystery. It is likely to involve the collaboration of operators, suppliers, and other Crown agencies in Ontario, such as the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA). iGaming Ontario (iGO) and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) emphasise that collaboration with other provinces will be important too so the strategy may involve working with crown corporations and government officials elsewhere in Canada, such as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).
Senior Communications Advisor for the AGCO, Raymond Kahnert, said that they will continue working with industry stakeholders and other jurisdictions while constructing a comprehensive strategy with the AGCO’s government partners.
An Ongoing Problem
CEO and Registrar of the AGCO, Dr Karin Schnarr, included figures in the report pointing to the levels of unregulated gambling in Ontario. She published figures from an Ipsos study that indicated over 85% of people who gamble online in Ontario do so on regulated sites. Ipsos is an international market research and consultancy company.
While Dr. Schnarr described these figures as representing considerable success, they are nearly three years out of date. However, the gambling research firm H2 Gambling Capital suggested that, at the end of the 2024 fiscal year, unregulated gambling represented just 7% of the market. Based on gross gaming revenue, the same data and intelligence company suggest commercial operators make up 77% of the market, and AGCO’s gambling platform, OLG, makes up 16% of the market.
Steady Progress
Outside Ontario, Nova Scotia has successfully driven out a significant unlicensed operator, Bodog. The company took itself offline for customers based in the Bluenose, where the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) operates the only regulated gambling platform. The ALC provides gambling products and services in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
These developments signal the growth and improvement of techniques for applying regulatory pressure on unlicensed gambling.
The AGCO could follow some methods used in the USA to tackle unlicensed operators. US regulators and state governments have issued cease-and-desist letters to many offshore operators. One coordinated campaign involving multiple states led to the closure of Curaçao-based Bovada. The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency announced they have sent similar letters to 11 unlicensed gambling operators.
