As a steward of Ontario igaming, there are few better placed to observe the market than Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) Registrar and CEO Tom Mungham, who has delivered an upbeat verdict on its first year performance.

The regulated market launched in the province on Apr. 4, 2022, and has grown to incorporate 45 operators and over 5,000 certified games so far with the approval of the AGCO.

Crucial to its success has been the ability to shift people away from unregulated sites, with a recent Ipsos survey revealing around 85% of respondents who gambled online in Ontario over the past three months did so on regulated sites, compared to the 70% of online gambling that occurred on unregulated sites before.

Via the AGCO’s release, Mungham explained: “A key objective in this first year has been to move Ontario players from playing on unregulated sites to the regulated market, so that they would benefit from high standards of operator and game integrity, fairness and player protections including responsible gambling safeguards.

“Although there’s still much work to be done, we’re pleased to see such a substantial shift towards gaming on regulated sites so far, and everything that it represents for players and for the province.”

Meanwhile, speaking at the Canadian Gaming Association event held yesterday to celebrate Ontario’s first year anniversary, OLG’s Chief Gaming Officer Dave Pridmore revealed that its digital gaming revenue and customer base is continuing to grow.

Now up is Dave Pridmore, chief gaming officer for @OLG_CA, who says their digital gaming revenue and customer base continue to grow, which is happening even with the addition of 70 or so other gaming sites. OLG's digital customers number ~1.6M, he notes.

— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) April 4, 2023

OLG – whose numbers are not included in the total gaming revenue and wagers revealed by iGaming Ontario (iGO) yesterday – has seen its digital customers number rise to 1.6 million, despite the addition of around 70 other gaming sites.