What happened in Alberta?
The short version: progress. The long version: It’s more like what’s happening, which is an ongoing process to open up the province’s regulated market for online gambling. As mentioned above, Play Alberta is the only authorized option for bettors right now. But, as also mentioned above, many bettors in Alberta are just using unauthorized operators that may be regulated and licensed offshore or outside the province, but not by the province itself.
So what the Alberta government is doing is creating a regulatory structure in which private-sector operators can get licensed and regulated and start taking bets with the blessing of the provincial government. Still, a lot has indeed happened. To understand the current situation, let’s take a look at the history of online gambling in Alberta and Canada as a whole.
Take a step back
To offer the full picture, we need to go back a few years to 2021. That’s when federal lawmakers in Ottawa passed legislation decriminalizing single-game sports betting in Canada. This freed up provincial governments to “conduct and manage” legal sports betting in a less parlay-reliant way. What this meant for most Canadian provinces is that their government-owned lottery and gaming corporations, such as the AGLC, could let their provincial sportsbooks take single-game bets.
However, not every province has stuck to this path. After years of work, Ontario launched a competitive iGaming market in April 2022, making it the first province in Canada to authorize multiple private-sector operators to do business within its borders. That model was challenged in court and upheld, showing other provinces that there is a legal way to let other, non-government-owned online sportsbooks and internet-based casinos operate in their jurisdictions.
Later in 2022, Danielle Smith became the premier of Alberta after winning the leadership of the province’s United Conservative Party. Smith and the UCP then followed that up by winning another (albeit reduced) majority government in a May 2023 election. Soon after, in July 2023, Smith issued a “mandate” letter to Dale Nally, the Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, saying she expected Nally (the province’s de facto iGaming minister) to “finish developing and implementing Alberta’s online gaming strategy with a focus on responsible gaming and provincial and Indigenous revenue generation.”
Good things grow…
The structure outlined in Bill 48 will be similar to the one in Ontario, with operators getting licensed by the AGLC (which will continue to act as an operator in its own right) and signing contracts with a new government entity, the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC). In Ontario, operators register with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission and execute contracts with iGaming Ontario. The ball was then back in the court of the government and AGLC to further flesh out the new iGaming market’s rules and regulations.
More details were released just last week, when the AGLC began accepting “registration” applications and published the first draft of the rules for operators. It’s not exactly apples-to-apples, but registration is a sort-of licensing process for operators. A launch of the new Alberta iGaming market is now closer than ever, but there’s still a ways to go. The iGaming standards still need to be finalized and contracts must be executed with operators, among other things.
That said, it looks very likely that Alberta’s new iGaming market, complete with multiple operators, will launch at some point this year. Perhaps before the next NFL season rolls around. Something that may speed up the process is that the AGLC will be able to “consider an applicant’s registration in another jurisdiction acceptable to AGLC where the applicant is operating in the same role or function.” For more information, you can visit Here
Smart Tip for Readers
When exploring the new Alberta iGaming market, make sure to only use licensed and regulated operators to ensure a safe and secure betting experience, and always prioritize responsible gaming practices.
