According to their Info Bulletin No.97, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission (AGCO) have now given Ontario charities to seed or guarantee prizes for electronic and paper-based Catch the Ace progressive raffles. Prior to this, seeding and prize guarantees were only available for 50/50 and fixed prize raffles.

Seed prizes: 

• Means licensed charities can be contribute (or seed) the prize pool with fixed cash amounts or mechanism so that the prize starts at a certain value that can be increased through ticket sales.

• Charities can also now accept sponsorship for a Catch the Ace progressive raffle through fixed cash or merchandise prizes but must communicate any sponsorships to customers (as outlined in the Raffle License Terms and Conditions).

Guarantee prizes: 

• To guarantee prizes means a charity can provide an assurance (or guarantee) that the Catch the Act progressive raffle prize will at the minimum pay out a certain monetary value.

• The guaranteed values must be clearly communicated to customers.

• If the total amount raised through raffle ticket sales does not meet or exceed the amount needed to award the guaranteed prize amount, charities will have to cover the remaining amount.  

• For raffles with guaranteed prizes valued over $10,000, an irrevocable standby letter of credit from charities is required.

Charities with existing Catch the Ace progressive raffle licenses issued by the AGCO, municipalities or First Nations licensing authorities are not eligible to request an amendment to existing licenses. This option can only be chosen when applying for a new license.

This change is part of a wider effort of the AGCO to modernize the charitable gaming sector.

For more information, please see below:

AGCO: Info Bulletin No. 97 – New Options for Charities to Seed or Guarantee Prizes for Catch the Ace

AGCO: Catch the Ace FAQs