The View - 224

1620 – People on the Move

1621 – Re-Opening of the Sector

Ontario’s Proof of Vaccine Programme was instituted on September 22nd. The first week was challenging in ensuring guests had the correct documentation for entry into our venues. This has resulted in some declining admissions as the correct documents were not available for review. Naturally, this has had an impact on our performance, and we are seeing a decline in revenue from previous weeks. We are hoping through the positive engagement our Team members have with our guests, performance levels will soon return to the level’s pre-proof of vaccination protocols. As I am sure you can appreciate, this does place additional pressure on the Teams at our venues, but all our members are following the directives as required by province.

Our members are now at the point of beginning the long road to recovery of lost revenue. The work undertaken by our Chair and Vice Chair, in seeking to bring the business to scale, did have a positive impact. However, we saw the difficulties in being able to adapt effectively to the events in the economy during the height of the pandemic.

We are still seeing inflationary pressure, especially around commodity pricing. Our members are monitoring this carefully, and where it is prudent, we will move pricing accordingly as this is likely to remain for some time.

The plans by our colleagues at the OCGA and OLG are still on course to welcome back charity volunteers into our venues. Phase one of the initiative is being targeted for the 1st November. The next phase will be reviewed early next year. The CGAO has long understood the importance of retaining the presence of the volunteers within the venue. Volunteers interact directly with our guests on the various projects they are engaged in within the community. This is the unique element for our business platform where our charities are direct recipients of the revenue generated. Our colleagues at the OCGA are communicating directly with their members on the process of how this will be deployed.

We want to acknowledge the OLG cGaming Team for all their support during this re-opening phase. Everyone has worked constructively to ensure we not only manage to be operational but have been able to do so with all the challenges.

1622 – iGaming and Single Sports Wagering

We continue to provide information to our members on the ongoing developments with iGaming. This is still scheduled to come online in the winter period and offers opportunities for those companies that wish to be a part of this exciting opportunity.

This is a good occasion for our members to team up and leverage collective strength and provide critical mass/volume. This approach shares the cost and spreads the risk, having a seamless customer experience (omni-channel) as value when applied correctly. Our partners at the OLG are forging ahead with their platform (which is operational) and I am sure as we move forward, their Digital Strategy will evolve as well.

Single sports wagering has gained tremendous interest by various sectors beyond just the major casino venues. Naturally within cGaming, we see this as an area of interest and our members continue to review potential paths of engagement as more information unfolds.

1623 – Health and Wellness

As we continue the development of customer health and wellness, our partners at PlaySmart have been reviewing and assessing the ‘Self Exclusion’ programme. They are looking forward to how this can be improved and how better to inform the consumer of the opportunities of this programme. The OLG PlaySmart Team recently presented their recommendations/plan at the Joint Operations & Regulations Committee. The direction of the new platform continues to be the theme of PlaySmart being informative, educational, and one of personal choice.  It will be positioned in a more positive light for the consumer as a step of engagement and not viewed as a negative area to engage in.

1624 – General Members Meeting – CGAO

Our next scheduled General Members Meeting is set for the 16th November 2021. We are currently reviewing whether this should be a face-to-face meeting. This would be the first time since early 2020 the members have had an opportunity to gather.

Our Chair will make his decision in the next week or so and we will communicate directly to our members.

1625 – G2E Gaming Conference – Las Vegas (USA)

This year, the G2E Gaming Conference is proceeding in Las Vegas (USA) from 4th to 7th October. I am aware that some of our members are showing an interest in attending, although I am not aware of any firm commitments at this stage.

G2E is a globally recognised conference and is normally very well attended. This is one of the first major gaming conferences to be held since the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are interested in attending, please see the enclosed link https://www.globalgamingexpo.com/

1626 – Charitable Gaming: Community Good

Our colleagues at the OCGA continue to develop the Charitable Gaming: Community Good brand. This is still in the early phases of development and the team is continuing to build on the foundation pieces, mainly the web page that hosts amazing and real stories of the value our collective initiative is having in the communities.

At the CGAO, we continue to encourage our members to ensure that banners and media boards carry the logo and promote the brand. It will take a joint effort by all of us to bring greater awareness and knowledge of the unique contribution we all make.