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A key Alberta official maintained Wednesday (June 18) that he expects the province to launch its competitive online gaming market in early 2026.
Dale Nally, the Minister of Red Tape Reduction and Service Alberta who has led the effort to liberalize online casino gaming in the province outside the traditional lottery corporation structure, spoke to an interested crowd at the Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto.
Although details remain sparse about what the province’s model will look like following the passage of legislation in the Alberta Legislative Assembly in May, Nally was optimistic about the potential timeline.
“I can't give you a month, but I can tell you early next year, we're going to be cutting the ribbon on iGaming in Alberta, and we're very excited to be able to offer that, and we're going to have more to share with you in the near future,” Nally said.
The legislation passed by the assembly deferred many of the key policy questions surrounding how the province will operate iGaming to government regulators.
While Alberta officials continue to gather stakeholder input, Nally said the effort to craft those regulatory standards will start in earnest later this year.
“I will be going back to my cabinet colleagues in the fall and we’re going to be talking about advertising standards and tax rates, and then we’re going to make those difficult decisions, because there’s a lot of emotion on the table,” he said.
Nally asked Canadian Gaming Summit delegates to weigh in on whether active or retired athletes should be permitted to appear in advertising for gambling operations, after they were prohibited from doing so by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario in new standards that took effect in February 2024.
“The free-market capitalist in me supports [being allowed to use athletes in advertising], but of course, it’s not going to be my decision,” Nally said. “This is going to be a cabinet decision that we’re going to make.”
Industry advisors at the Canadian Gaming Summit also spoke optimistically about the rollout of a competitive market in Alberta.
“One of the great things about working in Alberta on this topic is there seems to be from the minister, through the department, through the great folks at [Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis], total alignment in terms of in terms of where the province wants to go, and that is, generally speaking, the most important part from a governance perspective,” said Patrick Harris, president of Canadian lobbying firm Rubicon Strategy.
Nally and other government officials have maintained throughout the process that they intend to closely copy Ontario’s online gaming model, and multiple lobbyists said that was path worth keeping to.
“I think the Alberta model will be very similar, I hope it'll be very similar,” said Troy Ross, founder of TRM Public Affairs. “I'm sure that they will make some tweaks, and there are some lessons to be learned, but the reality is, they're not major changes. I think they're tweaks to the recipe.”
Ross cited potential tweaks such as increased black-market enforcement and some cost-of-compliance issues that could be potential adjustments for Alberta to look at in building off the Ontario model.
Harris also said there was room for improvement on anti-money laundering processes.
Both also cited Ontario’s ongoing efforts to improve the province's self-exclusion programs, which Nally also highlighted as a priority for Alberta and something that the provincial lottery corporation was doing well already.
“I can tell you, because we’ve had many conversations around the cabinet table, there is no light between us when it comes to responsible gambling, and it’s those types of self-exclusionary tools that we’re going to have in place,” Nally said.
“It’s important to us that when you hit that button and you say, I’m done, whether you tap out for six months or a year, it’s going to be on all iGaming sites that are regulated in Alberta, it’s going to include land-based casinos, it’s going to include racing entertainment centers, because we want to make sure that we honor our duty in Alberta to make sure that we have the most responsible and safe gambling.”
