Alberta’s iGaming Act And What It Means For The Province

Considering that online casinos and other forms of online gambling are now over three decades old it’s surprising that relatively few countries have the legal frameworks to deal with them. Undoubtedly, the UK was the trailblazer, introducing legislation in 2005 and setting up the Gambling Commission in 2007. Other countries like Australia and Italy have followed and in 2018 the US Supreme Court took the momentous step of legalising sports betting online.

Canada has been slow to catch up and it was Ontario that led the way in 2022 by establishing its own commercial iGaming framework overseen by its own regulatory body. Having seen this bed in for the last three years other provinces are now starting to consider their own positions in relation to iGaming and one of the most advanced of these is Alberta. Casino.org list the best online casinos in Canada, and many of these operators will have their eye on Alberta so they can capitalize as soon as possible if regulation does come into effect.

As the fourth most populous province with around 4.6 million inhabitants, with over half the population living in either Edmonton or Calgary, many are already thought to indulge in iGaming in an unregulated market.

What the Act entails 

The legislation goes by the name of Bill 48: iGaming Alberta Act and its intention is to create an organisation called the Alberta iGaming Commission. Its role will be to control all online gambling activities that take place in the province. This will be good news for the operators hoping to expand into the province who haven’t yet been able to. 

The over-riding purpose of this will be to bring the legislation up to date while also ensuring that players are adequately protected and that the legal framework is transparent for all parties involved. The Alberta iGaming Commission will be the body that manages all activity on behalf of the province’s government while also complying fully with Canada’s Criminal Code and the country’s Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act. 

Another important feature of the body will be to promote responsible gaming by ensuring that self-exclusion measures are in place for players alongside other steps to protect them from harm including identity theft.

As iGaming becomes more widespread across the country there will also be provision to enter into contracts and other agreements with other provinces’ official bodies to jointly manage lotteries and other schemes. Although still to become law, many features of the legislation have already been accepted. These include: 

• Restrictions that only allow registered operators to offer their services in Alberta
• The prevention of minors from accessing iGaming
• Advertising that must adhere to strict guidelines

The Commission will also be under the overall control of the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

A historic step 

As it was hoped that the Act will come into force in time for the 2025-26 NFL season there has been some pressure to pass it through the legislature. To this end, May 8th saw the third and final reading of the Bill. What then will follow is Royal Assent and the setting up of key regulatory policies and the opening up for would-be iGaming operators to apply for licences.

Even so, there are enough hurdles to overcome that the prospective start date for the new rules to into action has been moved to early 2026. Despite this, the province’s enthusiasm for the bill to become law was underlined by the fact that it passed through with relatively few changes and only a moderate level of debate with even the opposition of the New Democratic Party raising few concerns. 

Throughout the process the Ontario model has been closely studied and this has brought to the fore the need for a robust self-inclusion policy, something still lacking in that particular province.

The benefits it will bring 

It is hoped that a more closely regulated sector will offer considerable benefits for players and operators, not to mention a financial dividend for the province.

Players will receive a level of protection that is simply not available at the moment and may well get a wider selection of operators to choose from than in the unregulated scenario that exists today. Already, many of the operators currently active in Ontario have expressed an intention to apply for licences as soon as they become available. It’s also likely to give a considerable boost to sportsbooks, one of the fastest-growing parts of the iGaming sector.

For the province itself, it promises income not just from the sales of licences but also the tax revenue that it generates. It may even boost employment, possibly providing work for developers who already produce some Canada-centric games. These may well want to branch out into creating casino games like slots which, more and more, are staring to resemble video games themselves.

So watch this space for Alberta’s move into regulated iGaming coming very soon and, for some people, not nearly soon enough.