Celebrate Ontario’s 1st iGaming anniversary! C$35.6B bets placed & C$1.4B GGR, beating US rivals. AGCO’s success in regulation surprises all! (Photo by Alesia Kozik on Pexels)
What a year it was for the Canadian province of Ontario as it launched its online casino market a year ago this month.
Also, how time flies! It only feels like a short while ago I was reporting on the official launch of iGaming in Ontario here on Livecasinocental. It is now exactly 1 year and 2 days in the making and what I initially thought had a slim chance of success has turned out to become quite successful.
According to the latest stats from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission Ontario (AGCO), online casinos took a mind-blowing C$ 35.6 billion in bets. Even more impressive is that the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) was C$ 1.4 billion.
With these figures, the province is now one of the leading iGaming zones in North America competing mainly with states in the USA where online casino are legal. As for other Canadian provinces and territories, as they do not have a dedicated iGaming regulatory body, most players opt to gamble at overseas online casinos.
To put this into perspective, a GGR of C$ 1.4 billion for its debut year beats the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in their first years of legal iGaming. These states have populations of 9.99 million, 13 million, and 9.28 million respectively. while Ontario has a population of 14.73 million. And even though Ontario’s population is larger, I honestly didn’t expect the province to surpass the first-year figures of these states.
Despite the larger population, I truly did not expect market conditions in the province to encourage mass adoption of this magnitude, and that’s because I thought the AGCO was not being strict enough. It turns out I was very wrong, and the AGCO has nailed it!
Why I Got it Wrong & The Benefits of AGCO Casinos For Live Dealer Players!
Let me explain. Comparatively, US states ban all USD monetary transactions with overseas online casinos. This is in fact a US federal law that pre-empts any state laws that conflict with it and takes precedence.
However, Ontario’s provincial laws and Canada’s federal laws do not have such a ban in place for the CAD. This has always meant citizens in the province can still gamble at overseas online casinos giving them freedom of choice.
Now here’s the crux of the matter…
AGCO casinos are only permitted to host games that hold AGCO licensing. Now common sense tells you that when the Ontario iGaming market came online most software providers would not have applied for licensing. In fact, many had no plans to apply either. Why would they? They already had market access via casinos operating under Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Curacao, and Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) licensing. Plus, AGCO was not banning players from accessing these casinos.
It stands to reason that there would be fewer software providers available at AGCO casinos. This invariably means fewer games and thus less diversity in the casino lobbies versus MGA, Curacao and KGC casinos. Well, there is another twist to the tale.
How wrong I was, and here’s the twist to the tale….
Big-name live casino software providers like Pragmatic Play Live, Evolution, Playtech, BetGames and Authentic Gaming all applied for licensing. For live casino players in Ontario playing at MGA, Curacao and KGC casinos meant no access to games from these brands, and these are the live dealer developers with the largest number of live table games and game shows. 10 points to AGCO for luring in these software providers.
Then there are the video slot providers. As one big name after another announced its registration with iGaming Ontario (a subsidiary of AGCO for online gambling licensing purposes), it started to look like this market was going to gain traction and it did.
When the industry’s most in-demand slot titles were no longer available via MGA, Curacao and KGC casinos, players flocked to the AGCO online and live casino platforms. Play’n GO, Pragmatic Play, Wazdan, Greentube, Playtech, Just For the Win, Microgaming (Games Global), 1×2 Gaming, Hacksaw Gaming, Red Tiger Gaming, NetEnt, Quickspin, Relax Gaming and more.
The Result: With the industry’s most in-demand games no longer available at online and live casinos operating as overseas entities (no AGCO licensing), players are headed to Ontario-based online gambling platforms. Hence 12 months in action has produced a Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) was C$ 1.4 billion.
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The Majestic Mastery of the AGCO Licensing Rules
The AGCO added a clever rule that states that any software providers looking to supply Ontario-based online casinos must guarantee that players in the province cannot access those games on non-AGCO platforms. As mentioned, this meant developers like Pragmatic Play and Wazdan making sure any out-of-province and overseas casinos accessible by Ontario players block players from accessing their portfolio of games.
If any of these operators are found breaking these rules, they will receive a fine, licensing suspension or revocation. Now any software provider supplying operators supplying online casino platforms in Ontario must ensure it blocks IP coming from the region. Of course, some players could try to get around this using a VPN, but it seems that a workaround is not something players want to deal with. It is simply easier to just sign up and play at AGCO live or online casinos.
As an added benefit, players in the province are now under the protection of Ontario gambling laws. As online gambling entities have had to register a company under the iGaming Ontario (iGO), a subsidiary of AGCO, they are fully answerable to local laws.
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