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At the end of March, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally introduced Bill 48, the iGaming Alberta Act. Minister Nally explained, “We know that no form of gambling is truly safe. But we can help make it safer by making sure it comes with key social responsibility tools.”  

Governments have a variety of options when it comes to online gambling. They could ban it. They could legalize online gambling regardless of which sites provide it. Or they could regulate it – meaning they can stipulate rules and safeguards that companies must follow in order to legally provide online gambling.  

Alberta is looking to do the latter.  

If passed, Bill 48 will create a new Crown corporation called the Alberta iGaming Corporation, which will regulate private online gambling companies. The rules for online gambling and potential safeguards for gamblers would be determined by the future Crown corporation and the government.  

Currently, online gambling in Alberta is only legal through Play Alberta, a platform launched in 2020. That platform includes casino games, sports betting, and lotteries. It has over 356,000 player accounts, and generated $235 million in government revenue in 2024, up more than $42 million from the previous year.  

Yet one of the government’s concerns is the amount of gambling happening through unregulated sites, other online gambling companies that are not legal. Minister Nally estimates that less than half of all the online gambling done in Alberta takes place on Play Alberta. 

Alberta recently gathered feedback from Albertans through a consultation on online gambling. They noted that “iGaming has grown in popularity and visibility since August 27, 2021, when single-game sports betting was legalized in Canada.” In 2023, Premier Smith asked Minister Nally to implement “a comprehensive online gaming strategy with a focus on responsible gaming and provincial and Indigenous revenue generation.” Yet the government argues that they’re not doing it for the money – instead, they say they want to regulate existing online gambling in order to protect gamblers.  

Ontario is the only other province that has tried this, in 2022. While it’s difficult to know how much online gambling would have grown had Ontario not opened it up to private companies, it is clear that online gambling is becoming more popular. Overall, gambling is causing serious harm, and levels of gambling addiction seem to be increasing. At the same time, gambling is not only more available and accessible but also heavily promoted through relatively unrestricted advertising.  

While governments may say they’re not regulating online gambling for the money, revenue is part of the incentive. Ontario’s gambling revenue has continued to grow since expanding legal online gambling, as the province gets 20% of gambling revenue from regulated companies. Allowing and regulating online gambling includes an implicit approval of it, encouraging people to gamble ‘safely.’ But as Minister Nally noted, “no form of gambling is truly safe.”  

Over the next couple weeks, ARPA Canada will release two more articles that examine the issue of gambling more broadly. Is gambling simply harmless recreation, or a destructive vice? What is the extent of gambling’s effects in Canada today, and how should governments respond? Stay tuned for those articles. In the meantime, if you live in Alberta, reach out to your MLA to let them know your thoughts on regulated online gambling.