Last month, Ontario announced that it will soon expand sales of beer, wine, cider, and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages to corner and “big-box” stores. Ontario supermarkets already sell beer and wine. With this new expansion, they’ll be able to add ready-made drinks to their coolers as well. This is the “largest expansion of consumer choice and convenience since the end of prohibition almost 100 years ago”.
With the expansion Ontario will see, there will be some tradeoffs. They mostly affect Ontario’s traditional retailers of alcoholic beverages, The Beer Store and Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). The Beer Store is owned by three beer companies. Together, they get $225 million annually from the government to help with the expansion. These retailers will not be stopped from selling other products including lottery tickets. This raises an interesting question. Could retailers in Ontario like The Beer Store offer PROLINE?
What is PROLINE in Ontario?
Operated by the government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, PROLINE is a long-running in-person sports betting product. The OLG also runs a version of this online called PROLINE+. Convenience stores and other authorized retail locations in Ontario are where residents can walk in and fill out a paper selection slip. After that, they receive a betting ticket. Is PROLINE a lottery ticket or an “other” product in Ontario? That’s for the OLG to decide.
While PROLINE might be available in The Beer Store somewhere in the future, the LCBO doesn’t plan to make that kind of change. Their stores do not currently sell lottery tickers and they’re not interested in that type of expansion. Most betting in Ontario is done online. However, some loyal customers go into physical retail locations and buy PROLINE betting tickets. If The Beer Store can offer PROLINE, the number of physical tickets bought will surely increase. That would offer the OLG another avenue for sales. For the last few years, the OLG has been working to upgrade PROLINE. They added single-game wagering in the summer of 2021.
