During a roundtable talk at ICE Barcelona on Tuesday, Dan Keene, interim CEO of the Alberta iGaming Corporation, hinted that we might be looking at a Spring/Summer debut for Alberta's new iGaming industry.
A senior industry insider who attended the debate about Alberta's regulatory vision claims that. The Alberta government wants the market to open by spring or summer so that it can then ramp up to the start of the next NFL season, Keene was "hinting strongly" on Tuesday.
The iGaming Alberta Act, also known as Bill 48, was passed by the provincial government last year and established the Alberta iGaming Corporation.After obtaining a license from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), new operators must sign a contract with Alberta iGaming Corporation.
As of right now, the government's PlayAlberta.ca platform is the only one where Albertans can lawfully place an online wager. Residents of Alberta can still access dozens of legitimate offshore sportsbooks that are not licensed by the AGLC, creating a thriving gray market. In 2023–2024, Alberta's gaming net operating income reached $1.57 billion, the highest amount in seven years. Approximately 65% of Albertans who were at least 15 years old said they had gambled in the previous year.
Additionally, the source told Casino.org that Keene stated that operator contracts will be developed over the next four to six weeks and that Alberta will receive APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for centralized self-exclusion in one week. One of the main pillars of the new iGaming sector, according to reports last week, is a centralized self-exclusion mechanism.
The Ontario iGaming market has been operating for nearly four years, and there has recently been discussion of iGaming Ontario launching a player self-exclusion system sometime this year.
According to reports from last week, Alberta is allowing operators wishing to enter the market to preregister, with a suggested tax rate of 20% on 97% gross gaming revenue (GGR).
In Ontario, non-adjusted gross gaming receipts are subject to a flat 20% tax on operators.
Additionally, operators must pay $200K in costs, which include a $50K application charge and a $150K yearly license fee.
The operators he was engaging with were "a little put off" by the Alberta government's proposal and its anticipated rollout, a senior industry insider told Casino.org. According to the source, some operators were "broadsided" by the higher tax rate and the requirement for a SOC audit, which would increase market entry costs by at least $1 to $2 million. A SOC audit is an independent third-party examination that assesses security controls and security architecture to protect customer data and systems.
“There’s no value, they don’t need an SOC audit,” said the industry source. Most of the European operators the source communicated with said they had never heard of an SOC audit.
“That’s a real cost problem, maybe not for big guys, but for small or medium operators. Taking a million dollars off the top, or $2 million off the top, is really going to hurt them,” he said. “The operating tax rate isn’t 20% when you take three points off the top, it’s more like 22.5, so that’s not helpful.”
When determining whether to enter a jurisdiction, operators assess a wide range of variables.
“(The Alberta government) didn’t talk to the operators about the business structure,” said the source. “They talked about RG and centralized self-exclusion, but they never talked to them about all of these costs that they’ve added. They told us it was going to be a 20% tax. That’s not a great way to start. When a government agency tells you trust us, we are going to give you the straight goods, and they don’t, that has everyone feeling a little uneasy.”
The first operators to enter the Alberta market are anticipated to be FanDuel, BetMGM, theScore Bet, BetRivers, DraftKings, and NorthStar Bets.
