The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) fined Great Canadian Entertainment for alleged compliance failures, the latest penalty that Ontario’s gambling regulator has handed to one of its repeated serial targets.
The AGCO stated on Monday that it has penalized the multi-provincial casino operator to the tune of $120,000 after finding that the company allegedly used unauthorized gaming system software at four Ontario casino sites.
In what the regulator called “a serious compliance failure that bypassed requirements designed to protect the integrity of casino gaming”, Great Canadian allegedly used revoked or unapproved bill validator software in 40 instances across four locations between Feb. 20 and March 15, 2025.
AGCO references money-laundering concerns
Bill validators are components within gaming machines that accept and process cash and help support anti-money laundering controls, and their chief use is to verify the authenticity and value of cash used on electronic gaming machines.
The AGCO said the alleged violation “weakens safeguards designed to detect and prevent unlawful conduct, including money laundering, and can undermine public confidence in Ontario’s regulated casino sector.”
AGCO CEO and Registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr stressed that casino operators are held liable by AGCO for ensuring that the systems they use are independently tested, approved and operating as intended.
“When unauthorized software is used in a live casino environment, it bypasses critical safeguards that are meant to uphold the integrity of gaming and the public’s confidence in the system,” added Schnarr. “The AGCO will continue to hold all casino operators accountable for meeting Ontario’s high standards of gaming system integrity.”
Great Canadian Entertainment has the right to appeal within 15 days to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), an independent adjudicative body that is part of Tribunals Ontario. Canadian Gaming Business reached out to the company seeking more context and comment.
Neither the AGCO nor the operator confirmed which four Ontario locations were implicated in the alleged bill validator transgressions. Great Canadian Entertainment operates a dozen casinos of various sizes in Ontario:
- Casino Ajax
- Elements Casino Brantford
- Elements Casino Flamboro
- Elements Casino Grand River
- Elements Casino Mohawk
- Great Blue Heron Casino & Hotel
- Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto
- Pickering Casino Resort
- Shorelines Casino Belleville
- Shorelines Casino Peterborough
- Shorelines Casino Thousand Islands
- Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs
The company also has casinos in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, although it has sold all but one of its B.C. venues to a range of First Nations groups in the province over the last two years. Most recently, it completed the divestiture of River Rock Casino Resort, the largest casino in Western Canada, to the Snuneymuxw First Nation and the Musqueam Indian Band.
AGCO takes firm hand against land-based and online operators
Great Canadian has been a repeated target of the AGCO.
In April 2025, the regulator fined Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto $120,000 for allegedly failing to detect cheating and dealer collusion by two table games dealers. The following month, Great Canadian Entertainment was penalized $151,000 for allowing minors to access the casino floor and participate in “gambling activities” in four separate incidents across three Greater Toronto Area casinos.
Then, in June 2025, the regulator fined Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto $350,000 after an electronic dance music (EDM) event hosted by German DJ Boris Brejcha at the resort in September 2024, ended in alleged assaults, overdoses, “acts of public indecency” and a spur-of-the-moment after-party taking place amid slot machines and table games on the casino floor.
It’s not only land-based gaming operators that have been held to account by the AGCO. The regulator has issued numerous punishments to licensed Ontario iGaming operators in recent times, including:
- Fining theScore $105,000 last October for allegedly failing to address a user’s high-risk gambling despite “clear red flags”
- Fining FanDuel Canada a record $350,000 in January for allegedly failing to appropriately identify and report unusual and suspicious betting and match-fixing activity involving Czech table tennis
- Issuing a five-day suspension to PointsBet Canada in February for allegedly failing to identify and adequately report suspicious betting on now-banned NBA player Jontay Porter.
PointsBet Canada appealed that temporary suspension to the LAT. Canadian Gaming Business understands that a hearing is tentatively scheduled for October.
