OLG Privacy and Cookie Policy

Policy Statement

Statutory Authority

Regarding Children and Minors

What is Personal Information?

Why Does OLG Collect Personal Information?

Does OLG Disclose Personal Information?

How is Personal Information Retained and Secured?

How is the Personal Information of OLG’s Internet Gaming Customers Processed?

Your Rights

Cookies & Website Log Data

Third Party Links

Changes to this Policy

Contacting OLG

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is committed to protecting the personal information entrusted to us by our players. We protect your personal information in accordance with all applicable law, including Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FIPPA”), Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”) and other applicable laws (collectively the “Acts”).

This OLG Privacy and Cookie Policy (hereafter, the “Policy”) is incorporated into and forms part of the OLG.ca Player Agreement (the “Player Agreement”). Any conflict of inconsistency between this Policy and the terms of the Player Agreement shall be resolved in accordance with Section 3 of the Player Agreement. 

This Policy governs the collection, use, disclosure, retention and other processing of personal information by OLG through our products, services, and offerings through OLG’s websites and online applications (“Internet Gaming”). It explains what type of personal information is collected from our customers, how it may be used, and how you can ask us questions about our privacy practices.”

Any personal information collected by or on behalf of OLG is collected pursuant to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation Act, 1999.

Our website, applications and the services offered on our website and applications are not directed to individuals under the age of 18. We will not knowingly collect personal information about individuals under the age of 18. We do not allow individuals under the age of 18 to create accounts, make purchases or enter contests or promotions.

Under FIPPA, “personal information” means recorded information about an identifiable individual. In general, OLG collects the following types of personal information, although different types of information may be collected depending on the purpose of collection or if the collection is required by law:

• Identity information (such as your full name, Driver’s Licence number or other official ID number, etc.);
• Demographic information (such as your age or gender);
• Contact information (such as your email address or phone number);
• Location information (such as your address or the location of a device you use to access our website or applications);
• Professional information (such as your occupation or industry of employment);
• Banking or financial information (such as payment or withdrawal account information); and
• Transaction information (such as play or payment history, customer service history, or other information related to transactions between you and OLG);

OLG uses the personal information it collects for a variety of purposes in the course of carrying out its objects under the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation Act, 1999. When we collect personal information from patrons, we provide a ‘“Notice of ’Collection” which explains the specific purposes of collection for a given program, service, or offering. In general, the most common purposes for OLG’s collection of personal information can be organized into three main categories:

A. For program, service, or product administration – in order to provide you with service you have requested or to administer your participation in a particular program, we may use personal information. That may include using personal information for the following purposes:

• Uniquely identifying and authenticating patrons to provide them access to their account and to be sure prizes, payments, or other features of a service are properly administered;
• To deliver marketing and promotional material, including offerings (in accordance with the Acts) tailored to the recipient;
• To administer loyalty or responsible gambling programs;
• To provide customer service, facilitate payments and awarding prizes, and otherwise respond to patron requests, inquiries, comments, and concerns;
• To customize the presentation of our products, services, webpages, and applications to individual users; and
• As otherwise described in a Notice of Collection and/or permitted under the Acts.

B. To analyze and improve upon our products, services, programs, offerings, and processes – in addition to day to day administration of the services you engage with, we may also use personal information to assist us in evaluating and improving our products, services, programs, offerings, and processes. That may include using personal information for purposes such as:

• To research the operational effectiveness and business viability of current and prospective products, programs, campaigns, and services;
• To better understand the interests of current and prospective customers;
• To tailor or personalize offers and information (in accordance with the Acts) to receiving patrons; and
• To engage in responsible gambling research.

 C. To help OLG comply with applicable law and to maintain the integrity of OLG’s operations – in certain circumstances, OLG may be permitted or required to collect, use or disclose personal information so that it can comply with applicable law, or to maintain the integrity of its business. That could include using personal information for purposes such as:

• Ensuring that players are eligible to participate in lottery schemes or to claim a prize;
• Publicizing the information of lottery prize winners where permitted or required by law or regulation;
• Maintaining the physical security of OLG premises, such as through use of video surveillance or by checking patron identification;
• Collecting, organizing, and assessing patron information and transaction data to meet record keeping, patron monitoring, risk mitigation and reporting requirements under applicable law, including the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act;
• Administering responsible gambling programs; and
• As otherwise required or permitted under applicable law, regulation or as detailed in a Notice of Collection.

From time to time, OLG may disclose personal information to service providers or vendors acting on its behalf to enable them to perform specific types of processing and other specialized services. 

For example, OLG may partner with third parties to offer contest entrants a prize, and those third parties may require personal information in order to deliver that prize to the rightful contest winners. Service providers and vendors may collect, use, and disclose personal information on OLG’s behalf as described in this policy. Service providers and vendors who process personal information on behalf of OLG are contractually obliged to protect the privacy of OLG customers and to only process personal information for the specific purpose(s) for which OLG provides instruction or permission. 

Additionally, OLG may disclose personal information to law enforcement, regulators, and other third parties where permitted or required by law. 

Personal information collected by OLG is retained in accordance with applicable law and OLG’s records retention policies. After the applicable retention period for records containing personal information has elapsed, the records are securely disposed of in accordance with OLG information security policies. Throughout the retention period, OLG will make reasonable efforts to ensure personal information in our custody or under our control is kept accurate, complete, and up to date. Please contact the OLG Support Centre to advise OLG of any updates or corrections you would like to make regarding your personal information.

OLG has implemented physical, procedural, and technological security measures to protect the personal information in its custody and under its control. Access to personal information at OLG is restricted to individuals who require such access to perform their duties. Furthermore, OLG imposes information security requirements on third party vendors and service providers to whom personal information is disclosed. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. OLG therefore does not warrant, represent, or guarantee the absolute security personal information in our custody or under our control.   

OLG may collect the following types of information through your use of Internet Gaming:

In general, and in addition to other processing as described throughout this Policy, the processing of personal information for administering Internet Gaming accounts can be organized into four main phases:

A. Registration & Account Activation – when you choose to register for an account, OLG will collect certain identity, demographic, employment, contact information, device information and may collect biometric data with your voluntary, opt-in consent (see “Biometric Identity Verification” section below). This information will be used to administer your account throughout your use of the Internet Gaming service, to confirm your eligibility for registration, and for anti-fraud and legal compliance purposes. Additionally, OLG will seek to confirm that the device you use to register is located in Ontario, as OLG’s Internet Gaming service is only available to persons residing in Ontario and who use the service while physically located in Ontario.

Prior to account activation, OLG will seek to verify the identity of a registering individual. To confirm your identity, OLG shares some of the information you provide at registration with a third party identity verification service(s). If your identity cannot be verified with the information you provided at registration, we may require that you submit additional information or proof of identity prior to the completion of registration. Access to this additional information will only be provided to OLG personnel who require such access to complete the identity verification process. The information will be retained in a manner consistent with this Policy and OLG’s internal retention and information security procedures.

B. Use of the Service - after registration and account activation, you will be able to securely log into OLG’s Internet Gaming service. When you log in, OLG will seek to confirm that the device you are using is located in Ontario, as OLG’s Internet Gaming service is only available to persons residing in Ontario and who use the service while physically located in Ontario. Additionally, information about your use, such as transaction data, responsible gambling settings, and play history will be retained and used to provide you access to your overall account history, for responsible gambling purposes including monitoring, analyzing and communicating with you about your use of the Internet Gaming service, and for purposes as otherwise described throughout this Policy. 

C. Purchasing and Withdrawals – while logged in to your Internet Gaming account, you will have the option to purchase certain OLG products and services. Should you choose to do so, OLG will collect payment card information and payment through its third party secure payment providers. Transaction information will be processed to provide you access to a history of your transactions, for anti-fraud purposes, for compliance with applicable law and regulation, and as otherwise described throughout this Policy.

Should you choose to withdraw funds from your Internet Gaming account, OLG will collect bank account information from you to process your withdrawal requests. This information will be shared with OLG’s partner financial institution to process your withdrawal request. Where permitted or required for compliance with applicable law, including the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, OLG may collect additional information from a third party identity verification service.

In addition, you will be required to upload supporting documentation to confirm your withdrawal information. Access to uploaded supporting documentation will only be provided to OLG personnel who require such access to complete the withdrawal process. The documentation will be retained in a manner consistent with this Policy and OLG’s internal retention and information security procedures.

D. Inactivity & Deletion –in certain circumstances as described in the Player Agreement, your account may be deemed inactive or dormant. In such circumstances, personal information will be retained in accordance with applicable law and OLG’s records retention policies. After the applicable retention period for records containing personal information has elapsed, the records are securely disposed of in accordance with OLG information security policies.

In addition to the processing as described above, your personal information associated with your Internet Gaming account may be processed in circumstances unique to you. Examples of such processing include:    

• Customer Service – additional personal information may be collected and processed to assist you with your customer service inquiries.
• Prize Winner Publication – should you win a qualifying prize, your personal information may be published as described in the Player Agreement and where permitted or required by law.

To provide Internet Gaming products, offerings and services, your personal information may be disclosed to third party service providers assisting OLG in the provision and administration of Internet Gaming. Examples of such third parties include:

• Identity Verification Services – to prevent fraudulent activity and for compliance with applicable law, OLG shares your name, date of birth, and address with a third party identity verification service at registration or in the course of administering active Internet Gaming accounts;
• Content Providers – to provide casino games and sports wagering, OLG shares your language preferences, screen name, IP address and a unique alphanumeric identifier assigned by OLG to your Internet Gaming account with third party content providers.;
• Payment Provider – to facilitate payment, your payment card information is collected and processed by OLG’s secure payment provider. Your full payment card information is retained by the secure payment provider, and is not shared with or stored by OLG;
• Banking Provider – to facilitate your requests for withdrawals of funds, the bank account information you provide is shared with OLG’s partner financial institution. This information is used to ensure your withdrawals are deposited into your account;
• Geo-location Provider – the OLG Internet Gaming service is only available to eligible individuals who are physically located in Ontario. Accordingly, your connection information and the location of the device you use to access the Internet Gaming service may be shared with OLG’s third party geo-location service; and 
• Responsible Gambling Researchers – from time to time, OLG shares de-identified play data with responsible gambling researchers. Should you choose to self-exclude, such data is only shared with your consent. 

Any personal information collected, used or disclosed in the course of providing and administering the Internet Gaming service may be stored by OLG or its third party service providers outside the Province of Ontario or Canada and is retained in accordance with its records retention policies.

If you provide your voluntary, opt-in consent for our third-party identity verification service (Persona) to collect your biometric data, Persona and their service providers will use your biometric data for the purposes of verifying your identity, preventing identity fraud and complying with regulatory obligations during the online registration process in accordance with this Policy and Persona’s Privacy Policy. Additional purposes listed in the Persona’s Privacy Policy do not apply to OLG’s use of Persona identity verification services.

The biometric data will be permanently deleted: i) after your selfie is compared to your ID (whether a match or non-match is determined), or ii) if you pause the registration process, after three days, to allow you to return to the registration process. During this time frame, you can withdraw your consent by returning to the workflow and selecting another method of identity verification.

If you have an account, you may log in to access and update certain personal information stored with your account. For assistance, please contact the OLG Support Centre at 1-800-387-0098.

You have the right to request access to personal information retained by OLG. Upon request, OLG will make reasonable efforts to catalogue and summarize the personal information related to you that is in its custody or under its control.

You have the right to request the correction of any personal information in OLG’s custody or under its control. If, in OLG’s sole and absolute discretion, the correction cannot be made, you may require that a statement of disagreement be attached to the information reflecting any correction that was requested but not made.

In addition to any information that you choose to submit to us, we or selected third parties may use a variety of technologies that store or access information already stored on your personal computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phone (each a “device”) whenever you visit or interact with our Internet Gaming website or applications. 

A cookie is a text file placed on a device when a user visits a website. Cookies can be temporary (i.e. session) or permanent (e.g., persistent). They can also be first party (i.e., placed by us) or third party (i.e.., placed by a third party advertiser or advertisements server). 

Cookies that may be used to store or access information already stored by OLG on your device include but are not limited to:

OLG uses both session cookies (used only during your visit and expire when you close your browser) and persistent cookies (stored on your device for longer than just your visit) on its Internet Gaming website. Cookies used by OLG collect certain information about your device, such as its IP Address, operating system and browser specifications. 

OLG installs first party cookies on devices that access its websites unless the browser used by the device has disabled the installation of cookies. The first party cookies OLG installs ensure the website functions as intended, and in some circumstances are necessary for OLG to provide services requested by website visitors. For example, enabling first party cookies is required to log in to your OLG.ca Internet Gaming account, as first party cookies are used to support the log-in process. 

OLG also installs third party cookies on devices that access its websites unless the browser used by the device has disabled the installation of cookies. Third party cookies are used by OLG to analyze and improve the performance of our websites, offerings, and advertisements. OLG uses web analytics services, including Google Analytics, to understand the interests of our visitors, to market our products and services, and for other internal business purposes.

You can learn more about data collection and use via Google Analytics by visiting https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en-US, and can make use of Google’s free Google Analytics opt-out tool at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en. 

OLG may collect and utilize information concerning your relationship with us to determine which advertisements or offers to present to you, as well as to identify other individuals with similar interests on the websites of entities that advertise on our behalf. For instance, we may correlate your hashed and encrypted user data with social media platforms or other third-party websites. Subsequently, if you are a visitor of such sites, we may employ this information to display our advertisements to you or to individuals with similar interests. It is important to note that these third-party platforms may monitor your interactions with our advertisements and provide opt-out mechanisms should you prefer not to receive targeted advertising. Please be aware that as we do not administer these third-party opt-out links, we cannot guarantee the availability or accuracy of these mechanisms. We refrain from delivering targeted advertisements based on your user data in instances where you have opted out of receiving marketing communications from OLG or have opted out of receiving third-party advertising based on your interactions with social media or other third-party websites you frequent.

To opt out of receiving relationship-based advertisements, you may adjust your settings on the respective social media platforms, third party websites, or webmail services.

You can opt out of the installation of cookies, or delete cookies that were previously installed, by updating your settings in the browser you use to visit OLG websites. Please note, however, that cookies allow for optimal functionality of OLG websites, and are required for some features of our websites to operate. By using OLG’s websites and applications, you consent to the installation of cookies by or on behalf of OLG as described in this Policy

In some cases, our websites provide links to other sites created and maintained by other public and/or private sector organizations. We provide these links solely for your information and convenience.  OLG is not responsible for the privacy practices of websites not administered by or on behalf of OLG.

OLG reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Whenever we do so, we will post the updated version on our websites along with the last updated date. 

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please contact the OLG Support Centre by phone at 1-800-387-0098, or by mail at:

        70 Foster Drive, Suite 800

        Sault Ste. Marie, On

        P6A 6V2

        1-800-387-0098.