Online gambling offered by private-sector operators in Ontario is already providing north of $100 million a year in revenue for Canada’s most populous province.
Ontario’s early haul from its competitive iGaming market, which launched in April 2022, was outlined in the 2024 budget released by Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy last week.
The 200-plus-page document showed that iGaming Ontario (iGO), the government agency through which private online sportsbooks and internet casinos can do business in the province, generated $87 million in income for the government in 2022-23. The budget also projected iGO will provide $162 million in profit to the province in 2023-24 and $174 million for 2024-25. Ontario’s fiscal year starts April 1 and ends March 31.
In other words, then, the first three years of Ontario’s iGaming market are expected to net the province around $423 million in new revenue. The second anniversary of the market launch will be April 4 of this year.
According to last week's provincial budget, the first three years of Ontario's competitive market for online gambling is expected to translate into around $423 million in new revenue for the Ford government (iGO is the agency that collects that revenue):https://t.co/i63kSTLaNr pic.twitter.com/koXLrePBCD
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) April 1, 2024
That income is almost entirely from the revenue that mobile sports betting and casino operators such as BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel are earning from Ontario residents and sharing with the provincial government. The split between iGO and operators is roughly 20/80, meaning the province keeps around 20 cents of every dollar of revenue produced by the competitive iGaming market.
For example, from April 4, 2022, to March 31, 2023, iGO reported that $35.5 billion was wagered in Ontario via private-sector sports betting, casino, and poker sites. That translated into $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue, around 20% or so of which was supposed to go to the province.
However, iGO was also spending money to operate in the first year of the iGaming market. The agency’s annual report for 2022-23 showed it received nearly $1.26 billion in gaming revenue and then paid out $1 billion to operators. iGO then paid $133.7 million in sales taxes, $8.8 million in salaries and benefits, and $4.7 million in general operating and administrative costs, among other things.
The agency's net income was $96.2 million for 2022-23, but it also took a loss of $8.7 million from July 6, 2021, to March 31, 2022, when it was being set up and preparing to launch the competitive iGaming market but not yet receiving any gaming revenue.
Subtract the $8.7 million loss from the $96.2 million in net income for 2022-23 and you get $87.5 million, or approximately what is reported in the province's 2024 budget for that year. iGO said its total contribution to the province, including sales tax, was $145.7 million for 2022-23.
Winner/gagnant!
The income from iGO to the province does not include the contributions of the government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) either, which is substantial. According to the budget, OLG provided $2.5 billion in profits to the province in 2022-23 (which would include proceeds from its brick-and-mortar casino and lottery businesses, in addition to its online gambling site), and the corporation is expected to generate almost $2.4 billion in revenue for 2023-24 and $2.6 billion in 2024-25.
All of the above suggests the province is realizing a small but sizable chunk of revenue from Ontario's sports betting and casino gambling businesses, albeit nowhere near what the province takes in from taxes and other sources of funding.
Nevertheless, the gambling sector has grown in the province since the launch of the competitive iGaming market in 2022, as there are now around 50 operators offering sports betting, slots, table games, and poker via 70 or so websites. Previously, the only authorized operator of online gambling in Ontario was OLG.
Some of all of the money wagered at those sites is finding its way into the province's coffers, and gambling could form part of the provincial government’s effort to get back into the black. Among other things, Bethlenfalvy’s $214.5-billion spending plan projects a $9.8-billion deficit for the fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2025.
A small yet sizable chunk
In the foreword to the fiscal blueprint, Bethlenfalvy said the current Progressive Conservative government is “rebuilding” the province’s economy after years of alleged “neglect and mismanagement” under previous administrations.
“But we know there is more work to be done and at a time of high interest rates and global economic uncertainty, it is more important than ever to keep costs down,” the minister says. “This is why our government refuses to slow down our work to rebuild this province and it is why we refuse to put additional costs and taxes on families, businesses and municipalities.”
The Ontario government’s annual revenue is forecast to rise to $226.6 billion for 2026-27 from $205.7 billion this year. The government is also setting aside $1 billion this year as a reserve, which is why the anticipated fiscal shortfall is $9.8 billion and not $8.8 billion.
Included among the revenue projections is that income from government business enterprises (such as iGO and OLG) will fall to $6.8 billion this year from $7.3 billion last year, before rising to $8 billion for 2025-26 and then declining slightly again in 2026-27 to $7.8 billion.
