A new economic analysis of iGaming Ontario’s performance shows that a regulatory model for online gaming could potentially address the "large deficit" faced by the Quebec government with significant economic returns in its very first year.
The Quebec Online Gaming Coalition chartered accounting firm Mallette to produce a report exhibiting the fiscal impact of Ontario’s competitive, regulated online gaming industry.
iGaming Ontario (iGO) generated, according to the report, close to $230 million in revenues after expenses for the various levels of government in fiscal year 2022-2023, just its first full year of operation. Ontario Lottery and Gaming revenue from online gaming increased by 31% in that first year, as well.
The local government could see at least $145 million per year from Ontario's sports betting market without levying additional taxation of taxpayers.
“In addition to capturing more than 86% of the unregulated market in its first two years of operation, the Ontario model has shown that it can be profitable from the outset and be a major economic driver for the province," Nathalie Bergeron, spokesperson for the Coalition, said in a press release.
Macro-level impact
The report cited considerable contributions to Ontario’s overall GDP and job growth in addition to the tax revenues padding government coffers.
“Since Ontario opened up the market, we’ve seen new investment, job creation and the capture of revenue that was leaving the province. Ontario is well on its way to becoming the best gaming jurisdiction in the world,” said Dave Forestell, chairman of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
Nearly $1.6 billion was added to Canadian province's GDP in the first year of the online gaming market. Ontario’s operators directly created more than 1,800 jobs with an average annual salary of $103,000, which is 41% higher than the provincial average.
The market is only growing, too. Year two of Ontario’s competitive iGaming market saw a 78% increase in wagers compared to the prior year, good for a $63 billion total handle. Total gaming revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year was $2.4 billion as well, which is a 72% year-over-year increase.
Other important data
This report is just the latest data set that endorses the need for change in the Quebec sports betting industry.
A November 2023 report released from GeoComply, a company that assists online sports betting operators in determining the location of customers, showed that the company’s platform helped block roughly 105,000 attempts in Quebec to access Ontario-regulated mobile bookmakers since the start of the 2023 NFL season.
Moreover, results from polling done for the Quebec Online Gaming Coalition released in December found that 67% of Quebec-based online gamblers support a licensing system to regulate private-sector operators of mobile sportsbooks and casinos.
With the latest release, the Coalition is offering the Quebec government “a concrete solution” to countering a budget that the Premier characterized as a "large deficit." The Coalition also noted that the Minister of Finance recently asked Crown corporations for optimization efforts totaling $1 billion, so implementing a model that is unique to Quebec but also similar to Ontario’s competitive, regulated framework has the potential to generate significant economic benefits like the ones realized in the neighboring province.
