The province has scratched a high-stakes scheme to sell off Ontario’s $3.8-billion-a-year lottery business because the prize wasn’t big enough.
But Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which made the surprise announcement Friday that privatizing the lotto is off the table, will continue with “modernization” that should see players buying tickets on smartphones.
The news came shortly after Premier Kathleen Wynne released the mandate letters for her ministers Friday outlining their “to do” lists leading up to the spring 2018 election.
Wynne’s written directive to Finance Minister Charles Sousa implored him to oversee the “modernization of Ontario’s gaming marketplace to provide more choice and convenience for customers while maintaining a strong commitment to social responsibility.”
After she met with reporters to discuss the mandate letters, OLG revealed it was cancelling the international request for proposals for the lotto business “in favour of a revised modernization approach.”
As first disclosed by the
Star in 2014, the Liberal government hoped to reap a cash windfall by selling off the lottery franchise, which includes Lotto 6/49 and numerous other games.
Industry insiders estimated OLG could make up to 25 per cent more money off the lottery by boosting online and smartphone ticket sales and expanding its customer base to a younger demographic.
Rogers Communications, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — which owns Camelot Group, one of the world’s biggest operators with lotteries in the U.K., Ireland, and several American states — and GTEH-Scientific Games, a joint U.S.-Italian conglomerate, were the only qualified
bidders in the auction.
But interest soon began to wane with Rogers abandoning its first lottery venture and it became apparent there wouldn’t be the bonanza Queen’s Park had been anticipating.
https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2016/09/23/wynne-cancels-lotto-sell-off.html