Alberta officials want everyone to know that the province is still on track to launch a competitive, regulated market for real money online poker.
It’s just going to take a little longer than some may have expected.
That’s the message coming from the stage and the sidelines of this year’s G2E conference, which wrapped in Las Vegas on Thursday.
According to reports, Dale Nally, the Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, told a G2E panel that he was hopeful that when he returned to the conference next year he would be talking about a successful launch of regulated igaming including online poker in Alberta.
Social media was quick to react:
Alberta plans to adopt regulated markets similar to igaming and online poker in Ontario, although Alberta is considering giving oversight of igaming to the Ministry of Justice — a different approach than what Ontario took.
Brandon Aboultaif, Nally’s press secretary, confirmed to Poker Industry PRO on Thursday that various stakeholders, including operators, said they needed more time to engage with the province on the best way for regulated markets to launch.
“We aim to put the strategy forward in 2025,” Aboultaif told Canadian Gaming Business.
The outlet also quoted Paul Burns, president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, who said the ministry was “giving themselves a few more months to be able to do the work.” Burns added that a launch in late 2024 was unrealistic.
Although there is no official timeline for Alberta overhauling its igaming market, news that a launch won’t happen in 2024 is sure to disappoint online poker players from Wild Rose Country.
PlayAlberta is the only legal igaming platform in Alberta, but it does not offer online poker — only online casino gaming and sports wagering are supported. The platform is run by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC).
The AGLC said it plans to keep running PlayAlberta after regulated markets for igaming launch, and that the platform would compete against commercial operators.
Alberta Still Considered Next Market for Online Poker
Even though there’s never been a timeline for a launch, the excitement was palpable last March when the provincial government earmarked $1 million to study a potential overhaul. Nally was tasked with meeting Alberta’s First Nations over the spring and summer to discuss their participation in any future igaming setup.
At this stage, it looks like Alberta will be the next jurisdiction in North America to launch regulated real money online poker — and that’s taking into account a slower process in Alberta. In the US, Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio are among the states frequently mentioned as the next possible markets for online poker.
Operators have been bullish on Alberta for months. Lobbying firms hired by poker operators BetMGM and PokerStars have registered with the Alberta Lobbyist Registry.
It’s possible that Entain is also engaged with the province, since it owns half of BetMGM. That could also mean that Entain’s poker brands, Bwin Poker and PartyPoker, could be part of a future Alberta market considering both brands are live in Ontario and share a player pool with BetMGM Poker Ontario.
Bally’s, Evoke (formerly 888 Holdings), and Rush Street International (RSI) which runs BetRivers Poker have also expressed strong interest in Alberta.
International Liquidity Still Needs to Be Decided
Next month, while Alberta will be hard at work on its future igaming setup, Ontario will be heading to court.
It won’t be for anything trivial, either. Ontario, through AG Doug Downey, will be asking the Court of Appeal for Ontario to issue a ruling on whether the federal Criminal Code prohibits international liquidity. A three-day hearing is scheduled to begin on November 26.
Whatever the appellate court decides, the Supreme Court of Canada will likely have the last word on the matter. A favorable ruling either issued or upheld by the high court would mean that online poker operators in Ontario could resume sharing liquidity with ROW, just as they were able to do before Ontario launched a regulated, but segregated, market in April 2022.
On the other hand, if either court rules against allowing international liquidity, Alberta and Ontario could form a gaming compact between themselves. A similar partnership, the Canada Poker Network, includes provincial lottery-licensed online poker rooms in British Columbia, Québec, and Manitoba.
Last May, a bill that would allow Alberta to conduct igaming “either alone or in conjunction with the government of another province or territory” became law — in local parlance, it was given royal assent. That means Alberta is lined up to share liquidity with Ontario once the former does launch online poker.
If Alberta and Ontario did decide to share liquidity between them, their combined market would include 20.6 million residents — about the same size as the Michigan and New Jersey online poker markets combined. The two states are the largest members of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), a multi-state gaming compact in the US that also includes Delaware, Nevada, and West Virginia.