The number of legal pot shops in London could soon be going up.
Results of the province's second cannabis store lottery were released Wednesday morning with two more London-based applications being selected.
Noah Soberano and Robert Chomiak were among the 42 new applicants chosen through the provincewide draw by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario -- the body responsible for regulating the pot sector.
Soberano has proposed opening a location at 1135 Richmond St., near Western University while Chomiak pitched a store at 1310 Fanshawe Park Rd. W, near Hyde Park Road.
If both Soberano and Chomiak are granted licences it will bring the city's total number of legal brick-and-mortar cannabis retail outlets up to five.
They have until August 28 to apply for a retail operator licence and complete a retail store authorization application to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission. Store operators have to be able to show they meet all legal and regulatory requirements before the commission will authorize them to open a store.
A third applicant, Marilyn Jesty, has been put on the west region waitlist. She also proposed opening a store at 1135 Richmond St.
The commission received more than 4,800 expressions of interest in the lottery. Applicants were required to show they had a suitable retail space available and enough money to get a store up and running. The first draw held earlier this year did not include that stipulation.
In total, the west region, which includes areas from Windsor to Waterloo to Niagara, could see 11 new cannabis retail stores open. A Windsor businessman was selected through the lottery to open that city's first legal pot shop at 545 Ouellette Ave. Applicants in Kitchener, Welland, Ancaster, Guelph, Stoney Creek, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines were also drawn.
The largest number of cannabis retail hopefuls drawn were in Toronto, with 13 applicants in total.