Alberta appears on pace to launch a regulated market for real money online poker sometime in 2025.
This month, government officials in Alberta are expected to wrap up their first round of talks with various stakeholders over a possible overhaul of how igaming is conducted in the province — replacing the current setup with one that resembles Ontario’s.
It’s the next step that will hopefully result in the launch of regulated online poker in Alberta, Canada’s fourth-largest province in terms of population. Based on where Ontario was at this stage in the process, the regulated market there was still several months away.
Dale Nally, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, began meeting with the province’s First Nations in early June. Nally’s press secretary, Brandon Aboultaif, told Poker Industry PRO in an exclusive last month that the meetings would continue into July.
First Nations don’t currently receive any revenue from igaming in the province, since the only legal option is the government’s PlayAlberta site. The platform includes online casino gaming, sports betting, lottery, and other games, but not peer-to-peer poker.
Aboultaif said his boss would also be looking for feedback over expanded igaming from the province’s 24 land-based casinos — five of which are run by First Nations and the remaining 19 are commercial — as well as four racinos, aka Racing Entertainment Centers (RECs).
“We are committed to working with our partners to finish developing and implementing the province’s online gaming strategy, with a focus on responsible gaming and provincial and Indigenous revenue generation,” Aboultaif told PRO. “We recognize that it is important that any expansion of Alberta’s igaming strategy is done in a way that makes sense for our unique gaming market and serves the interests of all Albertans.”
Alberta will also be watching the Court of Appeal of Ontario, the highest court in Ontario, for its ruling on whether shared liquidity violates the Criminal Code of Canada. A hearing in Toronto is scheduled for late November. The Supreme Court of Canada could get involved after that, assuming there is an appeal.
If the court rules that shared liquidity is allowed, Alberta will more than likely move to do so with Ontario. Both provinces could also join the international market.
Separate iGaming Regulator Likely
It also seems at this early stage that Alberta plans to follow Ontario’s lead when it comes to creating a separate regulatory entity to be in charge of igaming in the province.
Ontario created iGaming Ontario (iGO) as a subsidiary of the provincial regulator, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), before regulated igaming launched in April 2022. That arrangement also helps separate AGCO, which regulates lotteries and games managed by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) — which makes AGCO a competitor with private operators.
Similar legislation to carve a separate entity from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) and to have that entity regulate igaming has already been enacted. What the entity will be called or when it will launch is still unclear — but Alberta online poker, online casino gaming, and sports betting won’t be far behind once it does launch.
Brand Familiarity Helps GGPoker
Which operators would be interested in launching online poker in Alberta? Judging by the response to date, it seems likely that the province could see at least six operators set up shop in Alberta — the same six that are in Ontario:
- 888poker
- BetMGM Poker
- Bwin Poker
- GGPoker
- PartyPoker
- PokerStars
A seventh operator, BetRivers Poker, is also likely to come to Alberta at some point, considering the brand is already live Ontario online casino and sports betting — and would likely offer poker once the BetRivers Poker platform is out of development.
GGPoker also makes the list of potential operators in Alberta. That’s not because the company has revealed any specific plans to do so, but more by the fact the GGPoker already operates in the province’s gray market — and it did the same in Ontario before the regulated space for poker launched there, too.
Alberta would be GGPoker’s second regulated market in North America, after Ontario. Whether WSOP Ontario (in partnership with GGPoker) would be extended to Alberta, too, remains unclear.
Paul Burke, Head of PR at GGPoker, told PRO in June that the company “continuously examines opportunities to expand to new markets, but we don’t have any specific details to share at this time.”
Running in the gray market gives GGPoker (and its rival, PokerStars) an advantage over other online poker rooms in that they can continue to sign up players, giving them and edge when other operators come to town. That arrangement came to be derided as a de facto two-tiered system for igaming in Ontario.