AGCO releases cannabis retail store lottery results

The Government of Ontario, through the Alcohol & Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), has released the results of its cannabis retail store lottery to determine who may apply for the province’s first Retail Operator Licences. The lottery selection was completed on January 11, 2019 at 3:16 pm EST.

The AGCO says that 17,320 applicants paid the $75 entry fee for the chance to be one of only 25 retail stores permitted to open by April 1st, 2019. In all, 16,905 applicants were deemed eligible to be included in the draw. 11,084 of those entries were for East region, where Kingston is located.

The winners of the lottery were randomly selected using a third-party-certified AGCO lottery software program. KPMG, contracted as the lottery’s auditor, was present to monitor the lottery to confirm that it was conducted fairly and according to the lottery rules.

The lottery results are below, separated by region. The publicly-released information has so far been limited in scope. While the AGCO released the names and application numbers of the selected applicants, it has not released information related to what municipalities the retail stores are expected to open in.

As set out in the Lottery rules, the 25 selected applicants will now be required to submit a $50,000 Standby Letter of Credit, submit a Retail Operator Licence Application and make a non-refundable $6,000 fee payment by the end of business day on Friday, January 18, 2019.

If any selected applicant is unable to complete their application, an applicant on the Wait List will be selected to apply in their place.