Operational Performance – By Line of Business

Alcohol

Licensing

The Liquor Licence Act and its Regulations provide the Registrar with the authority for regulating and licensing liquor sales licences, ferment-on-premise facility licences, liquor delivery service licences, manufacturer’s licences, and manufacturer’s representative licences.

The AGCO is also responsible for overseeing the administration of SOPs, which are required for occasional private events (such as weddings and receptions) or public events (such as community festivals), where beverage alcohol will be served and/or sold to the public.

TABLE 9 – Total Number of Liquor Licences and Special Occasion Permits

VQA Wine Sales at Farmers’ Markets

As of March 31, 2020, there were 161 wineries selling their fruit wine, honey wine, maple wine, or VQA wine at 218 Ontario Farmers’ Markets.

TABLE 10 – Compliance Services Inspections – Alcohol

TABLE 11 – Notices of Proposal and Orders of Monetary Penalty (Alcohol)

If the Registrar proposes to refuse, revoke, or suspend a licence, the Registrar must serve a Notice of Proposal (NOP) on the applicant/licensee outlining the reasons for the proposed action. Applicants/licensees who dispute a NOP may appeal the proposal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT).

Gaming

OLG Lotteries

TABLE 12 – Compliance Services Inspections – Gaming

Gaming Registrations

Gaming registrations must be obtained by individuals or businesses wishing to:

• provide goods or services to charitable or religious organizations to assist with the conduct and management of their licensed lottery event, or any business that manufactures bingo paper or break open tickets;
• sell lottery products on behalf of OLG, or provide goods or services to OLG related to lottery products;
• provide goods or services to, or work for a casino, slot machine facility, or charitable Gaming (cGaming) site.

In reviewing applications, an eligibility assessment is carried out by the Registrar concerning the character, integrity, financial responsibility, and competence of those persons or businesses and their suitability for registration.

TABLE 13 – Total Number of Gaming and Lottery Registrations

Charitable Gaming Licences

The AGCO administers the charitable lottery licensing program in Ontario. This includes lottery events conducted and managed by charitable or religious organizations (such as bingo, raffles, and the sale of break open tickets). The AGCO also issues registrations to individuals or businesses that wish to provide goods or services to the charitable gaming sector, and carries out inspection and compliance assurance activities to ensure that charitable gaming licensees and registrants are operating in accordance with the law and in the public interest.

The issuance of charitable lottery licences continues to be a responsibility shared between the AGCO and local municipalities. The AGCO licenses raffle prizes over $50,000 and bingo prize boards over $5,500. Municipalities have the authority to issue licences with prize boards less than these amounts.

TABLE 14 – Lottery Licences Issued

Electronic Gaming Equipment and System Approvals

Technical and Laboratory Services Branch

Ontario’s public confidence in gaming is largely based upon the integrity and fairness of the games and gaming systems in play. The Technical and Laboratory Services Branch ensures the technical integrity of gaming technology by testing and providing approvals of games and related gaming systems.

This technology is used throughout the province in all gaming sectors regulated by the AGCO, including casino gaming, charitable/raffle gaming, lotteries, and iGaming.

Gaming Laboratory

The AGCO Gaming Laboratory (Gaming Lab) is composed of a team of highly qualified and experienced experts in an in-house lab that is equipped with the same gaming systems used at gaming sites in Ontario.

The Gaming Lab is accredited to the international standard ISO 17025:2017 for testing laboratories, considered the international benchmark for excellence in testing laboratories. This achievement sets the AGCO apart as the only known gaming regulator with an in-house accredited gaming lab. This accreditation provides annual third-party assurance of the ongoing quality of the testing performed by the Gaming Lab.

The Gaming Lab released revised risk-based and outcomes-based minimum technical standards in July 2019 that dramatically reduced the regulatory burden for casino gaming-related suppliers while ensuring the integrity of electronic gaming machines is maintained. The new standards provide Gaming-Related Suppliers with increased flexibility in designing and implementing new gaming technology. Additionally, as part of this change, the AGCO implemented a new process whereby low-risk gaming equipment can be pre-approved without having to undergo testing by the Gaming Lab.

In 2019–2020, the Gaming Lab received feedback through its anonymous survey of Gaming-Related Suppliers who provide gaming technology for the Ontario marketplace, with 94% of respondents indicating good to excellent ratings for overall customer service provided by the AGCO Gaming Lab, including approval turnaround times and supporting the introduction of new technology.

TABLE 15 – Gaming Laboratory

Note: The average turnaround time for approval in 2019–2020 was 19 days, which is industry leading according to Gaming-Related Suppliers and matches the turnaround time from 2018–2019.
The goal is to maintain or further improve the turnaround time in the upcoming fiscal year.