E2 - Getting Serious with AGLC

Getting Serious with AGLC

Working with the government can be a challenge, even unforgiving. But charities in Alberta depend on the process for fundraising through casinos. There are so many rules and regulations, a casino advisor is necessary to help make sense of it all. In this episode of Raising the Stakes, we get into the complexities of navigating the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) as a charitable group. Casino advisor Jeffrey Dawson explains the lengthy application process and where charities might make mistakes. If that happens, groups can be fined or lose their events. 

Members from charities in Alberta; Sean Fraser, TerryLee Ropchan, and Mark Fournier discuss their experiences with making deadlines, understanding that the proceeds of casino events come with stipulations, and the importance of good record-keeping. Once charities get booted from the circuit, it takes a long time to work their way back into the good graces of AGLC. Then, Jeff speaks about why being an organization and bringing an entire team of advisors to the table matters to charities. There’s a reason why they are incorporated and hold a Gaming Worker Supplier license.

Raising the Stakes: Episode 2 “Getting Serious with AGLC”

Guests

Mark Fournier, Treasurer for Wild Rose Humane Society

TerryLee Ropchan, Executive Director for The Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre

Sean Fraser, Executive Director of the Evergreen Theatre Society

About Jeffrey Dawson & Alberta Casino Advisors Incorporated

Jeffrey Dawson is the owner and operator of Alberta Casino Advisors Incorporated. Trained and registered as a Dual-Advisor, Jeff can provide Cash Cage Advisor and Count Room Advisor services to any organization, and he has experience in every casino in the province. Jeff helps charities prepare the paperwork for their licensed casino event. Depending on their location, qualifying for a licensed casino event may take as little as 12 months, or at worst, may take five years or more. 

Alberta Casino Advisors serve charitable and religious organizations throughout the province.

They are a registered Gaming Worker Supplier that is licensed through Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC). They operate throughout Alberta with expertise and experience in all nineteen traditional casinos.

Visit https://albertacasinoadvisors.com/ to learn more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
If you honestly don't understand the nuances of it, working with government is challengingand they're quite particular about how they want to do things and also not terribly
forgiving.
When you're dealing with AGLC, like any government organization, they have a structuredway of doing things.
If you do not respond to their, within their structure and meet their deadlines, you couldlose your event.

(00:26):
There are more than a few things you need to keep in mind when you're dealing with theAlberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Commission, or AGLC.
That's who charities have to work with from day one, from when they decide to apply for alicense for a casino, all the way up to their events.
There's a reason why having a casino advisor is a requirement, to make sure the charitiesare doing everything they're supposed to, when they're supposed to.

(00:49):
Because if they don't, that's money they're leaving on the table.
This is Raising the Stakes.
It's a podcast about the role casino advisors play in helping charities pull off theperfect casino fundraiser event.
Because a charity's ability to help their communities might depend on just making it tothe tables.
There's a long road to get there, and when it comes to casino events, there's no room forerror.

(01:19):
Well, the rules are always changing from an AGLC's perspective, so yes, yes, there's lotsthat could happen to make it more difficult.
Jeffrey Dawson has been a casino advisor since 2011.
He's the owner and operator of Alberta Casino Advisors, Incorporated, and he's here todemystify the AGLC.
If you listen to what Jeff says, if you get your paperwork handed in on time and you planproperly for the event, it'll go off without a hitch.

(01:47):
It's a relatively straightforward process, but there are places where charities mightstill make mistakes, and there are consequences to that.
Last time on Raising the Stakes, we spoke to members of three different charitable groupsin Alberta about the work they do for their communities and how much of that is made
possible by the casinos.
cannot begin to tell you how giving our communities are and how giving the people in ourcommunities are.

(02:12):
That's Mark Forney.
Treasurer of Wildrose Humane Society, an animal shelter.
We do rely upon that to keep the shelter open, but the top up for the veterinary costs,that's almost exclusively done through the casinos.
Their vet costs are the largest they have, so that's a big compliment to the casinosystem.
But it's also something of an unsteady tightrope the charities need to walk.

(02:35):
Well, and that's the problem.
And I mean, as we move forward, and especially under this particular government, thingsare going to change again.
That's Sean Fraser.
He's the executive director of the Evergreen Theatre Society.
He's been doing casinos for a long time.
It's a steady source of their funding and what they need to do to survive.
But it's not without its share of challenges.
So one of the big first things that hurt casinos many years ago was when smoking wasbanned inside.

(03:01):
That really hurt casino revenues.
Back in the day, and this is about, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, we were doing a casinoevery
10 to 12 months and a casino would yield an organization around $100,000, $105,000.
We now are doing a casino about every 18 months and we get around $60,000.

(03:30):
When that's a large part of your revenue, know, $40,000, $50,000 reduction, it's hard.
So it's all the more important that everything goes smoothly for them.
I've had many people who volunteered several times and then they become a chairperson andthey didn't realize all the paperwork and all the poops and stuff that they have to go

(03:52):
through with AGLC.
We'll let Jeff take you through the steps.
For one, to be eligible, the organization must be a charitable organization.
They don't have to be licensed charity.
They just have to be not in the business to make money.
Then they have to be in
existence for a minimum of two years before they can apply to AGLC to run a casino event.

(04:18):
And so the AGLC will assign you to a region, depending on which region you're assigned to,the waiting period after you get approved is can be as long as three years and as short as
about 18 months to get your first casino.
So you have to be in existence for two years, six months of processing, a minimum 18months of

(04:40):
of waiting, so it's about four years after you organize before you can get your firstcasino event.
Four whole years.
While the time it takes might seem like a huge deterrent to charities, it's still theirbest bet.
They just have to ride it out.
But it's toughest for those who are just getting started.
It does get easier the more casino events you do.

(05:02):
And a good casino advisor is there to make everything as painless as possible, taking allof the worry out of it.
even the casino events that haven't happened yet by getting a jump on them right away.
cannot apply for your next event until the current event is filled.
We actually have an automated system where we upload in our system and literally onesecond after the event is completed, it's filed for the next one.

(05:26):
At this point, we're on a little bit of a cycle.
That's Terri Lee Ropchin, executive director of the Central Alberta Crime PreventionCentre.
So that first time,
You don't know, you're a little bit like nervous, will we get it?
All the questions, right?
But then afterwards, after you've been through one, you send in the next application.

(05:48):
And Jeff is always good at reminding everybody and making sure those get in.
Once you're in, making sure your reports are up to date, because we do have to report tothe Alberta government every single year.
And they're very meticulous that here's how much money was exactly in the account lasttime we talked to you.
tell us exactly where every dime came from and where every other dime went.

(06:10):
As long as you keep up on that and work with the nice people at the AGLC, it's actually apretty, pretty painless process.
When they send out the information to the charity that they have those two dates in thatparticular casino, they send a whole bunch of forms and they tell them what they have to
do as far as process, but they don't give really much guidance.

(06:31):
They rely on the advisors to do that.
So it's important.
to make sure you get assistance from day one from an organization that understands how thepaperwork needs to be done so you can get to your event and get the proceeds.
Jeff also helps charities with the ins and outs of the GAIN program that the AGLC offers.
It's short for Gaming Information for Charitable Groups.

(06:52):
They're resource that provides charities crucial training and information about thingslike eligibility requirements, allowable use of proceeds and submitting financial reports.
People just think maybe it's a grant, but it isn't.
It comes with some stipulations.
I'd say that AGLC has done a very good job in recent years of really

(07:12):
streamlining some of the things that are common to all groups.
If you have a team of people that have been doing them for a while, then it's not as bigan issue.
Where I would imagine it would be a little more complex is when you're having mostlyvolunteer run or parent run organizations because they've never really weighed it in to
those kind of things before.
And so it's kind of all new for them.
So it can be a little more complicated.

(07:34):
And I imagine that's where Jeff's team is needing to be a little more involved or a littlemore, you know,
guiding them through that process.
Because if you honestly don't understand the nuances of it, working with government ischallenging, right?
And so, and they're quite particular about how they want to do things and also notterribly forgiving.

(07:54):
The very first one that I did, I was fundraiser for an organization and they're like,yeah, and so you have to do that.
And I was like, I'm not sure how.
And at that point, we were working with a different casino host and they were not helpfulin that process.
It was like, fill it out, send it in, that's on you.

(08:16):
I think for those new ones that there's a lot of fear because you've got government formscoming at you, you've got deadlines, you've got to fill things in.
Working with the government can be quite particular, especially with AGLC.
They can also be somewhat intimidating if you're not used to it and quite specific.
And so the thing is, is to make sure you get all of your
I's dotted and T's crossed and all those things and don't miss deadlines.

(08:39):
Deadlines are really important.
Hey, louder for the people at the back.
The entire process, whether you have a casino event at all, depends on deadlines.
So some of the things that can go wrong is that it's not meeting deadlines.
Over the years, we've helped groups and noticed that sometimes that they're filling thepaperwork out incorrectly.
They misunderstand what the government is looking for in their forms.

(09:02):
So AGLC gets the paperwork and they say, okay.
This is wrong.
So they send it back.
They email you and say, okay, your form is wrong.
They'll give you like two days to fix it.
If you don't look at your emails and fix it, you could lose your event.
We just make sure that it's done very quickly, follows all the rules.
So there's no kickback.
So AGLC doesn't say, you filed this too early.

(09:23):
So we have to redo it.
And that just happened to groups.
Then they have to file it again.
And they're three months behind.
Jeff mentioned that he has an automated system.
to get charities started on the next casino as soon as possible.
It's this kind of efficiency that makes it run like clockwork.
And then there are other consequences than just not being able to have an event.

(09:44):
The AGLC can issue fines or if worse comes to worst, could make future casino events aless than sure thing.
There are organizations that I'm aware of that after they don't fill out the paperworkproperly or maybe they intentionally make an error on the paperwork.
They call that a way by.
If you get caught, ATLC could fine you.

(10:05):
They could also remove you from getting future casino events.
Yeah, you get once you get booted out of the circuit, it's a long time before you get backin.
It takes about six to eight years.
So yeah, it can be quite serious.
Jeff, keeping it simple is his number one priority.
He's constantly making improvements to automate and keep the guesswork out of it.

(10:26):
For the charities that do choose to work with Jeff, having a streamlined process that justworks
is important to them.
This comes in the form of good organization.
But also, Jeff works with a team, as he mentioned last episode.
That comes in handy when everything and everyone you need is in the same place.
So there's kind of two ways of going.

(10:46):
You can hire individual advisors for different shifts and they're all sort of
independent people.
Or you can work with someone like Jeff, who is actually an organization that comes to thetable.
So he's a small business with the resources of people that can fill all the differentadvisor roles.
another thing to note about Streamlining, Alberta Casino Advisors is incorporated.

(11:11):
For Jeff and the charities he works with, there's a lot of upside in doing this.
I'm one of very few in the province that have what's called a gaming worker supplierlicense.
My organization has gone through all the processes and the costs and the paperwork to getthat license.
And that way, the charity only has to write one check.
They write it to the corporation.
And then I distribute the checks between all the advisors.

(11:32):
So, after all this, the paperwork might be done, but the work isn't over.
We have to talk about maybe the most important part of this.
Planning the event.
Next time on Raising the Stakes.
Volunteers can make or break a casino event, but of course,
there are rules to follow.
If the charity doesn't have sufficient volunteers, is not allowed to open.

(11:56):
And because that charity has accepted the responsibility to be there for those two days,if they don't show up, technically the casino could seek financial recourse for not being
able to open.
there are lots at stake there.
That's how important volunteers are in this whole structure.

(12:16):
Find out how Jeff can help with the volunteer situation.
There are 200 of them.
They're on standby and he calls them Casino Angels.
Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media.

(12:38):
Subscribe wherever you get your podcast.