Canada’s second regulated iGaming market is just three weeks away from going live as Alberta will open its regulated online gambling market on the 13th July 2026, finally ending the monopoly long held by Play Alberta.
The market means Alberta will become the second province in Canada, after Ontario, to allow private operators to be licensed under a formal regulatory framework.
Nearly 50 operators have already secured licenses ahead of launch, and this includes FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and bet365. If you want the full scoop on what the casino regulation in Alberta Canada means for players, CUMTN has published a detailed breakdown worth reading.
Like we saw in Ontario, approval for an Albertan license wasn’t an easy process. Operators had to complete AGLC regulatory approval first, then finalise a commercial agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation, paying a $50,000 application fee and a yearly per-site fee of $150,000.
It’s easy to see why Alberta decided to move to a regulated market. A quick look at the scale of the unregulated market makes it immediately apparent why they decided to pivot. Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally estimates that around 65% of online gambling in the province currently happens on unregulated sites, and the new licensing framework is designed to channel that activity towards licensed operators.
Under the new framework, Alberta will keep 20% of iGaming revenue, with 2% directed to First Nations support and 1% allocated to social responsibility initiatives, which includes problem gambling treatment and research.
Licenced operators are also required to ensure their adverts don’t target minors and that professional athletes are not used in gambling promotions, both online and offline. There will also be a centralised self-exclusion system in place from day one, similar to what we see in the UK with GAMSTOP.
Most agree that opening the Albertan market is a positive step, especially as North America still lags behind much of the world when it comes to online gambling regulation.
However, there does look to be one unintended consequence: the likely closure of Daily Fantasy Sports.
DFS contests depend on large, cross-border player pools to generate the prize money that makes them worth entering, and once Alberta’s market goes live, operators are going to be restricted to keep play within provincial borders. That means the pool will be limited to 4.8 million residents – assuming every Albertan played DFS – and that simply isn’t going to generate enough liquidity for the contest formats that DFS relies on!
Whether DFS will return in Alberta one day relies, primarily, on a case before the Supreme Court of Canada, that will test whether provinces can share player pools across borders. There’s no hearing date as of now, however, so for now, Albertans should expect DFS to be off-limits when the regulated market officially launches on July 13th.
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Alex Smith