The long wait for online sports betting and iGaming in a second Canadian province could soon be over.
Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) released on Jan. 14 a series of documents containing guidelines for operators who want to offer platforms in the province. Alberta provincial lawmakers last spring passed the iGaming Alberta Act, and since then the AGLC has been crafting rules to get operators live. The new law and regulations are loosely based on both in Ontario, currently the only Canadian market with a live, legal commercial online gambling industry. In Alberta, consumers can currently wager or play online casino via the lottery’s PlayAlberta platform.
According to the Edmonton Journal, Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally didn’t identify a specific launch date, but said he’s aiming for go-live “sooner than later,” and that it would take “a few months” for interested operators to go through the licensing process.
Provincial governments were given the right to regulate digital sports betting and iGaming after Canada’s parliament in 2021 decriminalized single-event wagering.
Goal is to quickly eliminate gray market
The launch will be about a year later than stakeholders originally hoped for, but it will open the fourth biggest market in Canada. Ontario, the biggest province in the country, launched sports betting in April 2022, while lawmakers in the next two biggest, Quebec and British Columbia, have not yet passed legislation. The biggest city in Alberta is Calgary, and the province shares a border with Montana.
Like all of Canada, Alberta has an active online gambling gray market. When the Ontario regulator launched digital sports betting and iGaming, it gave gray-market operators a long runway to move into the legal market, and did not penalize those who did for previously operating in an unregulated environment.
It appears that Alberta will offer the same opportunity for a transition, but on a quicker timeline. The goal, Nally previously said, would be to bring as many gray-market operators under regulation as soon as possible so that the province will be able to reap the tax benefits and protect consumers.
The latest guidance outlines everything from the go-live and registration process to enforcement guidelines to operators’ responsibility to protect integrity of the game and gambling to anti-money laundering regulations.
Among the specifics:
- Operators will be required to pay a one-time CA$50,000 application fee and a CA$150,000 renewal.
- As lottery partners, operators will pay 20% of net gaming revenue to the province and keep 80%.
- Once accepted into the registration process, operators can begin advertising and signing up customers.
- The AGLC will have a self-exclusion clearinghouse so operators and the regulator can share information.
- The legal age to wager will be 18.
Operators will be held to strict know-your-customers standards to avoid underage gambling, and will also be beholden to stringent advertising guidelines similar to those in Ontario, which prohibit the use of celebrities and athletes to shill for gambling websites. Such personalities can, however, be used in responsible gambling advertising.
Parliament considering national ad rules
Advertising guidelines have been a key topic in Canada since regulated online gambling launched in Ontario in 2022. There was almost immediately a public outcry at the frequency of sportsbook advertisements, and since then, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has tightened its advertising policies.
In addition, parliament has been considering a federal framework for more than a year. Most recently, Sen. Marty Deacon has tried shepherding ad framework bills through the Senate for two sessions, though none have reached a full floor vote. Deacon’s 2025 proposal, S-211, would leave much of the decision making to the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, calling on it to “regulate sports betting advertising in Canada, with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the number, scope or location — or a combination of these — of the advertisements or to limiting or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting.”
The bill does not address the frequency of advertisements, a big complaint particularly in Ontario, and particularly in relation to Hockey Night in Canada and other hockey broadcasts. But Deacon last summer suggested implementing restrictions around what time gambling ads could start or that such ads would not be permitted in the first or last five minutes of a live game.
As in the U.S., however, gambling does not fall under the federal purview, so there is some question as whether or how a federal framework would work in concert with provincial laws and regulations.
