The Martin Lycka Safe Bet Show is back, and this time in the hot seat was Chief of Staff at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) Aaron GlynnWilliams.

GlynWilliams analysed OLG’s purpose and evolution in the face of ever-changing customer behaviour, the prospect of a regulated market in Alberta and how the strong “multicultural fabric” of Ontario is shaping gaming trends in the province.

OLG’s evolution

OLG, the organisation responsible for conducting and managing gaming activities in Ontario, is closing in on its 50th anniversary and GlynWilliams spoke about how it is changing its operating behaviour to meet the modern demands of consumers.

“As a corporation and a business, we’re facing some unique challenges and opportunities as I’m sure are familiar to others in the gaming industry,” said GlynWilliams.

“On our lottery line of business, we are working diligently on increasing the points of sale. Consumer behaviour is changing. People don’t go into the gas station anymore, they’re either charging their electric vehicle or they’re paying at the pump. When you’re at the grocery store you’re using the checkout lane.

“We need to broaden our points-of-sale to respond to those consumer behaviour changes and we’ve started launching self-serve terminals and integrating technology into self-checkouts. Our focus in the years to come is keeping up with consumer behaviour and making sure that they can access our products in the ways that they do their shopping and run their errands.”

Underlying this growth is a “commitment” to the people of Ontario. The OLG was created by an act of government and the money raised from gaming by the OLG is invested into social programs and government investment in the province.

As a result, GlynWilliams explained, responsible gambling is the “core” of OLG’s business and its priority is that what they’re doing is done in a way that “doesn’t further social harms or create unintended consequences”.

Alberta

Despite a delay in the process, it appears that Alberta is set to become the latest province in Canada to establish a regulated online gaming market. Speaking on the topic, GlynWilliams suggested that Alberta could be looking for some “inspiration” from the Ontario market, which was established in April 2022.

“Alberta will do what is right for them but I think what we’ve shown in Ontario is that opening up the market does channelise players out of the grey and black market sites and into licensed and regulated sites where a dividend can be provided to government dn a safer regulated space can be provided to players,” he said.

“I know that Alberta’s focus is to open up the market to achieve those same goals and some of the success in Ontario can certainly be informative to them as they do that.”

Diversity and inclusion

Also discussed during the episode was the strong “multicultural fabric” of Ontario and GlynWilliams explained that for a company to be successful in the region it has to integrate equity and inclusion principles, as well as be “reflective” of the community it serves.

“In the context of the gaming industry,” he added. “Continuing to grow by appealing primarily to a white male customer base is done. If we want to see continued growth in our industry, it means making sure that we’ve got the right cultural relevance.”

“Cricket is one of the fastest-growing sports in the Toronto market. Ontario is increasingly a cricket and soccer-playing country and that’s because our citizens are changing and coming from around the world.”