The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) hopes that its latest online casino game can help to drive change across the industry.

OLG has unveiled Red Panda Tails of Wealth, which it describes as the first game designed specifically for players with disabilities and accessibility needs.

The digital slot includes built-in accessible features, including compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers and keyboard navigation, a high-contrast colour palette for enhanced visibility and an accessible heads-up display engineered to integrate seamlessly into future games.

The crown corporation collaborated with Pixiu Gaming, Light & Wonder Spark and Toronto-based company Fable to develop the game.

The lottery corporation’s Chief Gaming Officer, Dave Pridmore, said in a release that the digital slot is the result of “a focused effort to put accessibility at the forefront of game design.”

Canadian Gaming Business spoke to OLG’s Vice President of iCasino and iLottery, Andrew Darley, to find out more about that effort.

A gap in the market

Darley noted that Statistics Canada data shows that more than one in four Ontarians report a disability.

“That, to me, shows there’s a large market of folks out there who may need some additional sort of support when they’re trying these games,” he told Canadian Gaming Business in an interview. “And we couldn’t find anything out there that was truly designed as an accessible game. As a business team, we looked at that and said there’s a gap that needs to be filled and this is also a really good opportunity for us.”

So, OLG set out to do it themselves, with the help of Pixiu, L&W Spark and Fable. All parties collaborated from step one, building the game together from the ground up.

The crown corp.’s internal research team worked hard to get insights from Ontarians with disabilities to ensure the game provided the kind of experience those players want and need.

One point that Darley and the team are particular proud of is that the game looks and feels like a regular slot game, able to be enjoyed by all of OLG’s players. The key differences are that the assistive technology is tailored to a demographic that is often not catered to in other online casino content.

“We’re making sure that it’s catching all the different pieces,” Darley added. “But the part I love the most about it is that it works well for everyone. There’s not one population that’s going to have an advantage in enjoyment of this game versus another. And that’s the core of it: making sure that everyone is equally served.”

Aiming for a more accessible industry

For now, this is just one game with a specific focus on enhancing accessibility.

But Darley was clear that his and OLG’s aspiration is to help drive innovation in the industry by showing other operators and game developers, both inside Ontario and elsewhere in Canada, that online casino gaming can be accessible for all.

“We don’t make the games, but we want the industry to see that this is possible,” he added. “We used our position as a government agency to really help support that and put that call out to the industry. That’s really what we’re trying to do: show that it’s doable, but that we need your help.

“We all should be aspiring to have accessible games on our site, and that’s really the key focus of it. We want to make sure that other people are looking to us to say, ‘hey, if OLG can do it, we should be able to do it as well.’ And the more people who ask for these types of games, the more these games will be developed, right? So, really, the goal is to take the industry there with us.”