Alberta to Launch Open iGaming Market on July 13, Aiming to Mirror Ontario’s Success

Alberta has a start date for its relaunched iGaming product, and residents and visitors alike to Wild Rose Country need only wait till July 13th to make a bet. While many analysts had opined that the Canadian Province might launch by late spring, recent statements from the provincial government have stated that many of the firms preparing to open had requested additional time to meet all of the tech and compliance issues involved with licensing and launch.

While no word yet on exactly how many new licensees will be up and running right out of the gate, the expectation here is that the additional time will mean more operators and choices for Alberta punters which was the original point of Bill 48 when it was first passed back in the spring of 2025.

Some Albertan iGaming History

Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) launched PlayAlberta to great fanfare in 2020. But it was hobbled from the start. First, it was late to market, some estimates put Albertans spending $400 million or more with grey market online operators from outside of Canada in the tear before it opened. It was always going to take a lot of time, money and most importantly great product and customer service to win these players back.

Five years on it was only capturing about 30% of Alberta’s iGaming Market. While CA$275 million in GGR was brought back into the licensed and more importantly taxed regulated market in 2025, it was clear the province couldn't allow hundreds of millions more to be spent with offshore casinos that were neither licensed or taxed. 

Ontario had found itself in this same exact position in 2022 and decided that regulated but open competition was the answer to its monopoly problem. The private market innovated quicker, offered better lines and odds and took better care of its customer.

By opening up licensing to anyone who could pass tight scrutiny over financials and background, and giving up the 100% percent revenue in its monopoly model and transitioning to a 20% tax they allowed the free market to do the heavy lifting of figuring out and giving players what they wanted.

This uncapped licensing and relaunch of a privatized system of dozens of operators was an immediate success. The Ontario Lottery Commission reported GGR of just over CA$ 500 million in 2021, by 2025 that number was north of CA$ 4 billion.

There are currently 48 operators with more than 80 sites between them and slightly more than 2 million active players. Current estimates indicate less than 15% of iGaming takes place with grey market operators. The province collected more than CA$ 800 million in gaming taxes alone last year.

The Ontario Model Moves West

It was readily apparent Ontario’s success could be easily emulated in the Energy Province, but Alberta wisely also chose to make some changes. Realizing that iGaming imposes real costs on social safety nets, and that a small but meaningful proportion of its users can suffer from problem gambling, the Province sets aside the first 1% of GGR aside for Responsible Gaming Initiatives. 

Then it sets aside another 2% for the First Nations to help those communities, then it taxes the remaining 20%. This gives a slightly higher effective tax rate of about 22.4% but makes sure there is a social safety net in place for both those dealing with gambling disorders as well as its indigenous people.  

They also put in place a Centralized Self Exclusion list. This is a Universal API across all licensed operators in the province. It allows those dealing with a gambling problem to only sign up once to be self excluded from every iGaming property as well as land based casinos in the province. 

One has only to look at Ontario’s success in attracting gaming business to see the need. It would take a pretty determined gambler to fill out self exclusion forms at more than four dozen properties. 

Besides an immediate logout on all accounts, the goal is an almost immediate cessation of marketing and promotional emails,as well as affiliate scrubbing, meaning not only will that person not be contacted by operators but also that other marketers that might be recruiting players in that operators name will need to cease  

One choice that Alberta made that lags both Ontario and almost all of the rest of the North American market when it comes to Responsible Gaming best practices is in legal age, though it almost certainly comes down to just a matter of regulatory consistency. Both alcohol and cannabis purchases only require a minimum age of 18.

It’s also possible that the Province didn’t want to give grey markets an extra year or more with which to hook younger players. Still it's a notable departure from the 21 years old requirement in almost all US iGaming and even from Ontario’s 19 year old minimums. 

The Road Ahead

Alberta will be only the second Canadian province to gamble with the notion that the best remedy for the grey market disease is an innovative and incentivized private market cure. They are betting that the uncapped and competitive market that worked in Ontario will lead over time to gaining back 90% or more of the total market from offshore operators.

They’ve carefully weighed the risks and rewards and written both their tax laws and their Responsible Gaming procedures especially around marketing and self exclusion in a way that they believe will lead to the least harm, and the most amount of resources available to those that need them.

When those first bets hit those digital layouts in mid July, the province will have one of the most progressive, regulated, and yet still competitive iGaming ecosystems in the world. Pulling off all those contrasting elements into a coherent, working whole may have started with Ontario, but make no mistake, Alberta has put its own stamp on this model. One that other provinces may soon follow.