If one thing is readily apparent after looking at Alberta Budget 2024, introduced Feb. 29, it’s that an Ontario-style, open, regulated online market for sports betting and icasino is a question of when for the province, not if.
Alberta took more baby steps in the direction of a new igaming market with the announcement in the provincial budget that CA$1 million has been earmarked towards an online-gambling review.
More specifically, according to the budget: “$1 million in 2024-25 will support a review of the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act and supporting Regulation, with the objectives of reducing the regulatory burden on business and finding ways to increase contributions to Alberta charities and community facilities.”
In addition, Dale Nally, the Alberta government’s Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, has been given a mandate by Alberta premier Danielle Smith to work with Indigenous partners to develop and implement Alberta’s online-gaming strategy, focusing on responsible gaming and provincial and indigenous revenue generation.
In a statement, Nally said, “Alberta can be a leading hub for igaming, with a strong emphasis on openness and a free market. We have low corporate taxes, streamlined regulations, and high disposable incomes. These conditions will allow us to establish ourselves as a premier destination for the igaming industry.”
So, Alberta isn’t potentially opening their market. Rather, with the premier’s clear directive in the minister’s mandate letter, that’s close to a guarantee that this is going to happen. Nally has to make it happen now.
In Alberta, the only place to gamble legally online is government-owned PlayAlberta.ca.
What’s next? The more iGaming Ontario issues quarterly reports (the last one, for Q3, through Dec. 31, 2023, showed a 21 percent increase in total wagers in the province to $17.2 billion, with 49 licensed operators and 72 gaming websites up and running), the more it will verify where Alberta is clearly heading, the more it will change the dynamic in the rest of the country, and the more pressure will be put on the other provinces. The dominoes will start to fall.
The second through the gate is never as big a story as the first. And the continued success of the private model is an existential crisis for the other provincial crown corporations.
But it doesn’t have to be. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s Chief Gaming Officer Dave Pridmore told CDC Gaming Reports last fall, “The newly regulated and competitive market has challenged OLG to think different and push the boundaries of possibilities, not just with our product offerings, but also by optimizing our teams and establishing more efficient processes to help our speed to market.
“The open market leveled the playing field for us. We went from being the only regulated operator in the province to one of many, who all had to adhere to the same rules. This is good for OLG and good for the customer. It means that the right protections are in place for all customers across the board with a keen focus on responsible gambling, and from a marketing standpoint, ensuring transparency, to ensure customers who are not gamblers, are not pushed into a space they may not be comfortable with.
“When you look at the OLG Sports business, specifically, this product line is one that has grown significantly since market opened and continues to grow.”
OLG’s player sign-ups and revenues are up. It’s made them better. Now, the question for other provinces should be about regulating activity that’s going on in the gray market.
With Alberta, how it will open is as much a question as when. The next provincial election is on or before May 2027. Will Alberta see a mad scramble towards marketing sponsorships that was seen in Ontario? Or will that end of it be more measured?
Existing gray-market operators with established brands may not have to invest as much in ad spend, because they’ve already captured market share. But the bigger American-based players, like FanDuel and DraftKings, will likely do what they did in Ontario and grab as much real estate as they can, although it won’t be on par with what we saw in Ontario, because Ontario is a larger market.
Albertans love to gamble. How many convert from LTVs in bars, for example, to igaming when a competitive market comes along is another question.
If you’re looking at the next provinces to follow Alberta, that’s going to come down to the timing of elections. The next provincial election in British Columbia is this October. In B.C., the focus has been on a provincial government-commissioned report on money laundering at casinos, undertaken by Dr. Peter German, and implementing the recommendations that came out of that. We’re not going to see anything concrete on the B.C. front as it relates to changes in igaming, outside of tire kicking, until the election is over.
The next provincial election in Quebec is October 2026. An organization called the Quebec Online Gaming Coalition, composed of operators like Bet99, DraftKings, and Rush Street Interactive, is pushing hard for an Ontario-like model for that province. They’ve deployed GeoComply to provide more data that sheds light on Quebecers’ playing habits. In December, the coalition released research revealing that the 72 percent of Québec players who use Loto-Québec’s Espace Jeux platform do so exclusively to buy lottery tickets, and 73 percent opt to play on privately operated online-casino and sports-betting platforms. That means 27 percent of players use Loto-Québec for sports betting and online casinos, according to the study.
Despite that, the government of Premier Francois Legault indicated recently that they are happy with the Loto Québec, monopoly model.
But will an election change all that, as Alberta climbs aboard and Ontario continues to grow?
