Progress in Alberta toward the Launch of Legal Online Gaming

The Canadian Parliament legalised online gaming on August 27, 2021. Since then, Ontario has been the only province in Canada with legal online casinos and sports betting sites. Every other province and territory only allow gaming through lottery corporations. However, that could all be about to change.

Alberta is making progress towards becoming the second Canadian province to open its online gaming market to the private sector. It’s too early to say when the Albertan market will open up, but we know it’s coming soon.

Currently, Albertans can only play online casino games and bet on sports legally through the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission’s PlayAlberta and Alberta Lottery platforms. The Western Canada Lottery Corporation’s Sport Select sportsbook is also available.

Basically, if you want to gamble online with a legal betting site in Alberta, it has to be through a lottery corporation.

It wasn’t always going to be like this. In December 2021, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) tested the waters of legal online gaming. The top regulator researched the topic and solicited proposals from online casinos, sportsbooks, and other betting sites. In the end, nothing came of it. Alberta decided to stick with the government-run options.

After the success of iGaming Ontario, Alberta lawmakers decided to think again. Legal gaming at Ontario casinos brought in over $2 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year. Alberta obviously wouldn’t see revenues quite that high, but it’s clear that lawmakers feel they are missing out on some easy money.

In May 2024, the Government of Alberta passed the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act (Bill 16), which opened the door for legal online gambling in the province. Just a couple of months later, Dale Nally, the Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, confirmed that Alberta was working towards an open market.

Nally did not give a timeline for when the legal Alberta gaming market will go live. Some reports say it could be as soon as the end of 2024. However, 2024 is almost over, so 2025 looks more likely.

As hinted at above, there’s not been a lot of clarity about what’s next for legal online gaming in Alberta. We have to assume that lawmakers and the AGLC are making progress, but nothing has been announced.

Outside of Alberta, though, there has been progress, which gives us hope that good news from Alberta will be coming soon. The biggest development that affects Alberta comes from Ontario.

After iGaming Ontario went live, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke filed a lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court against the Government of Ontario. The legal action argued that iGaming Ontario, along with its legal gaming framework, was not valid under the law, since it allowed “private sector enterprises” to conduct and manage online gambling.

Basically, Kahnawà:ke claimed that Ontario had overstepped what the new Canadian Criminal Code allowed. They also argued that iGaming Ontario infringed on the rights of First Nations governments.

In May 2024, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke’s lawsuit. The official ruling explained that iGaming Ontario’s framework was neither illegal nor unconstitutional. “Ontario, through [iGaming Ontario], is conducting and managing the iGaming scheme,” the Superior Court said, dismissing Kahnawà:ke’s main argument.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke is a powerful player in Canada’s online gambling industry. Now that a court has ruled against it, supporting legal iGaming scheme’s like iGaming Ontario, other provinces will be much more likely to consider opening up their legal gaming markets.

Since Alberta has already started on the path towards adopting an Ontario-like open market, this case brings the province one step closer to having a legal gaming market soon. This isn’t just us speculating, either.

According to Bruce Caughill, managing director for Canada at BetRivers, Alberta’s rollout of legal online gaming could happen very soon. He also says that rollout could be rapid, since most experts expect Alberta to simply adopt a regime almost the same as Ontario’s.

Jay Snowden, CEO of Penn Entertainment — owner of ESPN BET in the US and theScore in Canada — is also optimistic. In a second-quarter earnings call in August, Snowden said that Alberta officials are pushing for a late 2024 or early 2025 launch of its legal betting market.

“We would anticipate that the success that we’ve seen in Ontario with theScore and theScore Bet, we would be able to replicate that in Alberta,” Snowden said.

He also explained that he expects Alberta to quickly become one of Penn’s biggest markets.

“TheScore is a very popular brand throughout Canada, it’s not just a Toronto or Ontario thing. So, given the success we’ve had in Ontario and given that Alberta will have very similar tax rates as we understand it and be both online sports betting and icasino, we think it’s going to be a really important North American market for us, probably a top three or four market for us,” Snowden said.

With projections like this coming from some of the iGaming industry’s biggest names, it’s only a matter of time before the Alberta legal gaming market goes live.