Auditor: OLG Needs To Improve Its Responsible Gambling Program

Last week, Bonnie Lysyk, Ontario’s Auditor General, released her annual report overviewing the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) work. In this document, she states that online gambling inside the province is currently booming after its full legal launch back in April. However, OLG still needs to strengthen its effort in the area of responsible gambling.

Incredible Growth In The Number Of Players

According to the report, as of the end of 2022, the OLG’s customer base includes about 257,000 average monthly bettors. For comparison, in 2016-2017 this indicator was at the level of 31,000. It is safe to say that the launch of Ontario’s legal iGaming market turned out to be successful.

Responsible Gambling Gaps

There are numerous responsible gambling tools available to the platform users, such as financial, loss and time limits, self-exclusion etc. However, as a percentage, the number of users of these tools has decreased compared to five years ago. For example, the casino loss limits active users’ ratio has dropped from 33% in 2017 to 11% in 2022.

At the same time, the potential problem gamblers’ ratio has increased from 11% in 2019/20 to 13,4% in 2022.

From these figures, it follows that new bettors are much less likely to use the responsible gambling tools due to unwillingness or lack of awareness.

Financial Matter

Ms. Lysyk also discovered that the OLG started saving on financing its responsible gambling program. Specifically, the corporation’s budget for the safer play program has decreased from CA$20 million in 2016/17 to CA$7 million in 2021/22.

In her report, the auditor insists that OLG should improve its cooperation with the local iGaming market in terms of the players’ protection.

Gamble Responsibly

At Responsible Gambling, we believe that the best way to keep your gambling fun is to approach this hobby responsibly. Do not ignore the responsible gambling tools, set your financial and time limits and never exceed them, take self-assessment tests every once in a while, and stay out of trouble.

Source: https://www.canadiancasinos.ca. Article: ONTARIO BETTORS RARELY USE OLG’S PROTECTION TOOLS, FINDS AG, 2022.