Just recently, Loto-Québec posted online its first quarter financial results for the first quarter of the 2022-2023 fiscal year. This applies to the period between April 1, 2022, through June 27, 2022, during which the Crown agency reported total revenue of CA$744.3 million. It is a significant improvement over last year’s same quarter of over 85.5%.
It has been a relatively strong quarter for the Crown agency that operates the regulated gambling lottery for the province. It reported a consolidated net income of CA$446.5 million. This was a CA$109.1 million or +32.4% increase over the same quarter of 2019-2020, but it also decreased the ratio of total expenses to revenue from 31.2% to 22.7%.
Breaking Down Numbers
For Q1 of 2022-2023, the Crown corporation’s lottery segment brought in CA$256.6 million in revenue. This was a slight decline of CA$19.2 million from Q1 of 2021-2022. The drop-off is explained due to the drop in the sale of Lotto Max tickets, which had seven consecutive draws for a jackpot of CA$70 million. Meanwhile, online lottery sales accounted for 12.6% of the total lottery sales.
Then, casinos and gambling halls delivered CA$263.4 million in revenue, or CA$186.4 million more in comparison to the same quarter but from last year. This was also CA$34.6. (+15.1%) in comparison to the first quarter of the pre-unprecedented situation year. The increase on a yearly basis can be explained by the fact that there were no casino closures in Q1 this year.
Online casino revenues accounted for 24.3% of total casino and gaming hall income, compared to 9.5% for the same period in 2019–2020. The increase is explained by the improvements on the website as well as the launched initiatives to distinguish it from illegal gambling websites in the province. Thus, managed to attract more players to its regulated options.
Lastly, the gambling establishment sector contributed revenue of CA$228.5 million, which represents an immense increase of 438.4% compared to the same quarter of 2021-2022. This is due to the fact that properties closed from April 1 to mid-June 2021. While revenue from video lottery terminals has aligned to the volume from before the unprecedented situation.
Contract Agreed
Also last week, Loto-Québec announced that an agreement has been found with its protesting professional staff and its operations will now continue as normal. The 455 workers are represented by the Syndicat des professionnels du gouvernement du Québec voted 96% in favour of the recently proposed contract and are now back at work.
The union revealed that the new contract will run to December 31, 2027, and will now require them to work from the office only four days a month. It grants a salary increase of 2% per year for the duration of the contract as well as some bonuses and lump sums. This includes a 1% lump sum for 2022 and a 2.5% lump to be paid upon signing of the contract.
Source: “First quarter of the 2022-2023 fiscal year – Loto-Québec reports excellent financial results” Yahoo, September 23, 2022
