Quebec’s online gambling monopoly reported revenue rising 29% in its most recent fiscal year, but the site still can’t catch up to its west coast rival.  

The Loto-Quebec gambling monopoly in the Canadian province of Quebec released its fiscal 2019-20 annual report on Tuesday, which showed revenue of C$2.74b (US$2.07b) in the 12 months ending March 31, a 3.1% decline from fiscal 2018-19’s result. Net income slipped 3.9% year-on-year to C$1.35b.

The decline was expected, given the chilling effect that COVID-19 inflicted on the province even before the shutdown of all non-essential retail operations in March. Loto-Quebec CEO Lynne Rotier noted that the impact on the current fiscal year will be significantly greater, but the company was doing its best to reduce expenses to offset the damage.  

The Espace-jeux online gambling site reported revenue of just under C$135.9m, up from C$105.4m last year. Online lottery revenue rose 37.8% to C$39.4m while online casino gained 25.7% to C$96.4m. Loto-Quebec said online lottery sales soared nearly 160% following the complete suspension of retail sales in March.