Alberta should harmonize its regulatory approach with Ontario's, say lawyers
After two years, Ontario’s regulated online gambling market has grown quickly, according to the latest numbers from iGaming Ontario.
“iGaming Ontario’s FY 2024-25 Q1 Market Performance Report” covered April 1 to June 30 and showed a 31 percent jump in wagers compared to Q1 2023. At $726 million, Q1’s total gaming revenue has increased by 34 percent in the last year. A Deloitte report estimated that iGaming has brought in $790 million in revenue and taxes for the provincial government, $75 million for municipal governments, and $380 million for the feds.
In June, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally said his province was examining the Ontario model for local application, according to media reports.
“We're expecting to see continued growth of the market across the board,” says Galen Flaherty, an associate at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, with a focus on corporate and securities law.
Ontario has 50 gaming operators who are running 80 websites and around 1.9 million player accounts were active during Q1, according to the iGaming report. On average, accounts spent $284-per-month.
“We continue to see active interest from prospective operators and suppliers in Ontario's market,” says Flaherty. “Many of them are currently in the onboarding process.”
Deloitte estimates that gaming has produced $2.7 billion in GDP and nearly 15,000 full-time jobs.
“We're seeing some exciting corporate transactions taking place too,” says Cameron MacDonald, a partner at BLG whose expertise includes M&A, corporate finance, and FinTech.
BLG recently acted for a group in their agreement to acquire the World Series of Poker from Ceasars Entertainment.
“You are seeing a lot of international players coming in and doing some pretty exciting things, as well as some great domestic homegrown companies that will continue to grow and do exciting things over the second half of 2024.”
MacDonald says he expects to see a continued focus on responsible gaming and player protections evolve and mature, which is a benefit of a regulated marketplace. He notes that iGaming recently announced a new centralized self-exclusion system, a first in North America.
iGaming Ontario is a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and regulates online gaming by supervising, upholding standards, and determining the eligibility of operators. It has the power to sanction and issue warnings, suspensions, and penalties.
Know more about the Canadian laws on liquor and alcohol in this article.
In 2021, the federal government passed Bill C-218, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act. The private member’s bill from a Saskatchewan Conservative MP amended s. 207(4)(b) of the Criminal Code, which had prohibited single-event sports betting. The changed allowed provincial governments to determine how to manage sports betting in their jurisdictions.
“Alberta is fortunate to have the Ontario model to look to,” says Flaherty.
An essential component of success is an alignment of stakeholder interests, he says. From iGaming’s inception, Ontario and the AGCO consulted and collaborated with industry participants.
“It's important to keep in the back of people's minds that many of the operators who will come to Alberta are already well-established in Ontario, and they were likely previously well established in other jurisdictions, abroad,” says Flaherty. “They're experienced, mature operators who have a lot of insights to share.”
“Ontario definitely made good use of that experience and actively collaborated in a responsible way. Alberta would be well suited to follow that same approach.”
It will be important that, as the second province to establish a regulated sports-betting market, Alberta harmonizes with Ontario’s regulatory regime, says MacDonald
“What they don't want to have is a situation where they have contradictory regulatory requirements.”
In contract, he says, the United States has rolled out its iGaming system on a state-by-state basis, with differing regulatory regimes and licensing processes.
