CANADIAN REGULATION
Eleven businesses are facing the removal of alcohol and lottery services due to having Prime Skill games at their location, which are critical to their survival. The AGCO’s decision to issue Notices to Revoke, instead of, for example, providing licensees with an opportunity to remove machines, prioritized deterrence over the commercial well-being of the restaurants, bars, and lottery retailers, who were likely under the impression that the games in their establishments were games of skill and, therefore, legal. The AGCO’s approach with SBG was collaborative, and it resulted in the availability of GotSkill? Games for approximately eight
years after the initial Information Bulletin. The AGCO’s approach with Prime Skill was to sanction licensees who had Prime Skill games in their locations, including by issuing Notices to Revoke. With no official statement on the subject, we can only speculate as to why the AGCO took such radically different approaches in these two cases. Looking at how the GotSkill? matter played out, it’s reasonable to assume that the regulator wanted to avoid another eight-year bout of tangling with skill-gaming operators in the courts. Regardless, it is in all stakeholders’ interests to carry the lessons from GotSkill? and Prime Skill forward to establish a framework for addressing “not-gambling” machines that is collaborative and deterrence-focused.
JACK TADMAN Principal, GME Law For more information contact jack@gmelawyers.com +1 647 567-1742
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