Alberta's move to the regulated gaming market is widely expected in the near future, following in the footsteps of Ontario. iGaming Ontario executive director Martha Otton gave a wide-ranging podcast interview during the recent Canadian Gaming Summit with the topic of Alberta's regulation process being the main topic of conversation.
The minister of Services and Red Tape Reduction in Alberta, Dale Nally, was given a mandate a year ago to put the finishing touches on the launch of online wagering in that province. As yet there’s been no date provided on when that will happen, but there was a million dollars earmarked in the province’s 2024 budget to determine the feasibility of a regulated market.
One of Otton’s colleagues was asked if Ontario is actively consulting with other provinces on how to adopt regulation and which province is most likely to be next.
“Dale Nally, Alberta’s Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, announced at the Canadian Gaming Summit in June that his province will follow the iGaming Ontario blueprint to regulate online gambling in that province,” the spokesperson said. “As Canada’s igaming landscape continues to evolve, we are open to working with our colleagues in other provinces, sharing best practices and working together to elevate the standards of online gaming for Canadians who choose to play.
“iGaming Ontario continues to be available to operators, government, and industry partners looking for information about Ontario’s regulated igaming market. Ultimately, each Canadian province will make its own decisions regarding igaming and regulated markets.”
The spokesperson said the volume of sports betting ads has been a topic of conversation in the industry since single-event sports betting was legalized in Canada, also leading to further discussions about gaming safely.
“Having regulated operators advertise their offerings is one way to help people in Ontario understand that the regulated igaming market is available and offers players safer gaming sites where they can play with confidence,” said the spokesperson. “According to an Ipsos survey released in April by the Alcohol and Gaming Corporation of Ontario (AGCO), more than 86 per cent of Ontarians who gambled online in Ontario over the past three months did so on regulated sites. This is a significant shift from the estimated 70 per cent of online gambling that occurred on unregulated sites before the launch of the market.”
The AGCO, which regulates gambling in the province, in February updated its Registrar’s Standards for Internet Gaming in a move to prohibit sports stars and celebrities from appearing in ads, except for those that only advocate for responsible gambling practices.
“We’re committed to working closely with the AGCO, advertising partners, and Operators themselves to create a proper balance of ads in the market,” said the spokesperson. “As part of Ontario’s plan to offer players the most compelling and competitive legal online gaming experience, the government is asking the Ontario Court of Appeal for an opinion on whether our igaming model could legally allow people in Ontario to play peer-to-peer games, such as poker, with players from outside Canada.”
In an effort to better serve its customers, iGaming Ontario has launched what it describes as a “direct player feedback process” to better understand what players want to see in the future. And in a parallel initiative, iGaming Ontario plans to expand collaboration among itself, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) on topics of shared interest.
“The AGCO regulates all gambling in the province, while iGaming Ontario conducts and manages the open competitive igaming market through agreements with private operators. At the same time, OLG conducts and manages all land-based casinos and charitable gaming centres in the province, along with lottery games and its own igaming scheme at OLG.ca. Expect to see these three agencies working in lockstep to continue promoting safer play and player choice in the years ahead.”
In its third year of operation, iGaming Ontario is “now seeing the true scope of Ontario’s igaming market,” leading to better comprehension of how gamblers in the province want to play.
“We are also developing our understanding of the protections we can offer to people who gamble in the province,” the spokesperson said. “The regulated market gives players on regulated igaming sites access to protections like deposit-limit and time-limit setting tools, ways of taking a short-term or long-term break from the site, and easily accessible links to gambling support services.
“We are constantly looking for ways we can do more through education and projects such as our upcoming centralized self-exclusion platform where players can choose to self-exclude from all regulated igaming sites in Ontario at once (including OLG.ca).”
