Vancouver Canucks' goaltender and BC Lottery Corp. poster boy Roberto Luongo was paid $160,000 last year for endorsing the Crown corp's online poker site and appearing in casino poker tournaments, Business in Vancouver has discovered.
Luongo, who is expected to be traded when the National Hockey League lockout ends, has appeared in advertising campaigns on behalf of the Crown corporation's PlayNow.com and in River Rock Casino Resort poker tournaments.
In the year ended March 31, 2012, BCLC covered his $10,000 buy-in, as well as travel and accommodation expenses, for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas last July, when Luongo finished 634th out of 6,598 players and won $19,277.
The BCLC's newly published Statement of Financial Information disclosed the payments to Luongo. Copies of Luongo's endorsement contract obtained via Freedom of Information were heavily censored by BCLC to hide the dollar values.
Luongo signed a 12-year, $64 million deal with the Canucks in 2009, but was blamed for the team's 2011 Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins.
BCLC is an advertiser at Rogers Arena, where it has a luxury suite. The financial documents revealed that BCLC paid Vancouver Arena Ltd. Partnership $52,828 and Vancouver Canucks Ltd. Partnership $1,229,275.
By comparison, BCLC paid the BC Lions $512,024 and Vancouver Whitecaps $115,080.
The companies that received the most payments from BCLC were Great Canadian Gaming Corp. ($199,614,028) and Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd. ($178,571,729). Great Canadian Gaming's flagship is Richmond's River Rock and Gateway's biggest properties are the Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby and Starlight Casino in New Westminster.
BCLC spent nearly $29.5 million on advertising, marketing and promotions. Suppliers included OMD Canada ($16,098,609), DDB Canada ($2,368,845), Taxi Canada Ltd. ($1,618,992). BCLC also paid Facebook $40,596.
BCLC CEO Mike Graydon's annual pay was $390,665 plus $22,141 expenses. Chairman John McLernon got $22,313 plus $1,783 expenses.
BCLC's net win for 2012 was $2,059,512,000 up from $2,026,391,000 a year earlier.
Total income, after expenses, was $1,089,608,000, down slightly from $1,090,203,000.
