Ontario’s provincial gambling monopoly reported its online gambling revenue rising by one-quarter in its most recent fiscal year, although it still has miles to go to challenge its provincial rivals.

On Thursday, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) issued its annual report for the 12 months ending March 31, 2018, during which the Crown corporation reported revenue of C$7.58b (US$5.8b), a 5.6% improvement over fiscal 2016-17’s result, while net income improved 5.3% to C$2.49b.

The overwhelming bulk of OLG’s 2017-18 revenue came via its lottery operations (C$3.78b, +2.7%) and land-based gaming (C$3.55b, -0.8%), which consists of four ‘resort casinos’ and 21 smaller casinos and slots halls operated either by OLG or its service providers. Charitable gaming revenue rose 12.4% to C$172m.

The lottery division was the only vertical to report a drop in net income, falling 1% to C$1.07b, primarily due to marketing costs for new products like Hit Or Miss. Land-based gaming brought in net income of C$1.49b (+7.6%), thanks mainly to one-off gains from the transfer of assets in awarding regional casino bundle service provider contracts.