Alberta iGaming Produces Over $2 Billion in Wagers in First Quarter

Alberta iGaming is off to a flying start now that its market has been brought under provincial regulation.

The Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) revealed that the area’s legal gambling market, consisting of sports betting and online casino play, generated CA$2.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in wagers and $122.1 million ($87 million) in revenue in the three months following its July 13 launch. 

Registered player accounts increased from 226,959 in the first month to 388,585 by the end of September.

Alberta iGaming takes off

Alberta became the second Canadian province to launch its legal iGaming market, thereby allowing customers to gamble at sportsbooks and play online slot machines and table games. Ontario was the first.

Ontario generated one-third more revenue than Alberta during its first three-month period from April 4 to June 30, 2022. However, that period included eight additional days, and Ontario’s population is three times larger than Alberta’s.

Alberta also took an innovative approach to combatting illegal, offshore, and gray-market gambling. The province gave unregistered operators a 90-day period after launch to pause their operations, secure licensing through the provincial regulator, and then re-open their platforms. 

Criminal punishments would not be pursued for these platforms, and they would not be reprimanded by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC), the organization in charge of applying gaming enforcement. 

“Regulation matters,” said Dan Keene, AiGC CEO. “This is a market where approved iGaming operators are held to high standards of accountability, and where revenue stays in the province to fund programs and services Albertans rely upon.”

More than 50 sites — including platforms as big as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM, down to smaller competitors — are licensed in Alberta at the time of writing.

Breaking down the performance

According to provincial revenue reports, casino gaming dominated Alberta’s online market during September, the most recently completed full month.

Casino games accounted for 75.6% of the unadjusted revenue. Sports betting was second at a distant 19.5%, and live casinos contributed 4.9%.

The 388,585 accounts that were active in Sept. did not necessarily mean that nearly 400,000 individuals were using licensed iGaming operators. Players with accounts at multiple licensed platforms were counted one time for every platform they visited with a registered account.

Average revenue generated per play was about $146, or $4.87 per day, in Sept.

“Early results indicate that Albertans value the strong oversight and greater accountability offered by a regulated market,” AiGC CEO Dan Keene said. “We hope to continue educating Albertans about the risks associated with illegal offshore sites and move them onto regulated platforms where they have rights and recourse when iGaming.”

Alberta, like Ontario, allows operators to keep 80% of their net iGaming revenue — but in Alberta, that’s only after 3% of their gross gaming revenue is allocated to First Nations and responsible gaming programs. Alberta’s government keeps the remaining 20% to fund public improvement projects and other efforts.