Play Alberta is the only mobile sports betting and online casino gaming website in the province that is run by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC). However, the government monopoly may not last for much longer if we are to believe recent comments made by Minister Dale Nally.
Competition Coming to Alberta?
Residents of Alberta have enjoyed online sports betting and iGaming for a while now but only through its government-run website, Play Alberta. Anyone who has ever interacted with a government agency will universally attest that private firms are more innovative and ultimately forge a better product or service because their jobs depend on it. Just ask anyone who has ever used GambetDC, the disastrous government-sponsored sports betting platform in Washington, DC, that was recently discarded for private operators.
Although Play Alberta does not have the same notorious reputation, bringing competition to the market would increase the volume of betting and ultimately prove more financially beneficial to the province.
In June, Dale Nally, the Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, said at the Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto, “I can’t commit to a date other than to say we are not going to spend the next two years planning this. We want to move sooner as opposed to later. There’s certainly some important work that has to happen. But I have advised all the operators that we are doing that work now, and I would like them to be prepared to move quickly.”
Ontario Blueprint
That was the first public acknowledgment that the major sports betting and iGaming companies were going to be invited to Alberta’s digital gaming party sooner than later. Moreover, the Alberta market will be borrowing many of the same features of the burgeoning Ontario market, which already has a competitive free market replete with 46 gaming providers operating 71 gaming sites.
“We’re not going to be capping the number of operators,” Nally told Covers. “We’re not going to be mandating ‘tethering.’ We want a free and open market and allow the operators to compete.”
Like Alberta, Ontario has its own government-run digital gaming site operated by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). However, when the market opened to private concerns, a new governing body was created to oversee and regulate Ontario’s gaming market, as the private companies were not comfortable with a competitor in charge.
Changing the Dealer
Alberta envisions taking a similar tact, which means the AGLC is no longer expected to be the province’s regulator once private entities enter the market. It will, however, continue to run Play Alberta and operate as simply another competitor in the market.
“To be clear, AGLC has done a good job with Play Alberta, but we heard from the operators loud and clear that because of AGLC’s relationship to Play Alberta, they’re not comfortable sharing information with them, and it’s important that they are not the regulator for iGaming in Alberta for that reason,” Nally said. “We’re just in the process of working out those details now. But it will be government or the ministry as opposed to AGLC that conducts and manages.”
