In the last few years, online casino gambling has been spreading like wildfire all over Canada. In order to better cope with this, Canadian provinces started making their regulations in order to profit from this brand new market.
Ontario has been particularly creative. The province has decided to raise taxes from gambling and use that money to raise funds for organizations across the province, including hospitals, protecting the environment, and various other charities.
Gambling is not a new thing in Ontario. In 1975, the province created the Ontario Lottery Corporation (OLC), a body tasked with regulating gambling activities in Ontario. Its first lottery game, WINTARIO, was introduced in the same year.
The earnings were used to promote physical fitness, sports, cultural and recreational activities through the Ministry of Culture and Recreation. As time went by, the province tightened its policies on gambling. In 1994, Ontario’s first brick-and-mortar commercial casino was built in Windsor, one year after the formation of the Ontario Casino Corporation (OCC).
At first, the province relied on lotteries, but then Ontario started investing in Slots, Bingo, and table top games After several changes, the province’s gambling body was transformed into the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
Today, besides owning many brick-and-mortar casinos, the corporation also invests in online casino gaming. As it turned out, the profits have been soaring for quite some time, and it is yet to be seen what is the industry’s true potential in the province.
