Alberta is just a formality away from legalizing commercial online casino and sports betting.

Minister Dale Nally’s Bill 48 was passed by the provincial legislature’s Committee of the Whole and subsequently by the full Assembly at third reading on Wednesday evening. The United Conservative Party’s enabling legislation, titled the iGaming Alberta Act, now just needs Royal Assent to be enacted.

The bill, which was passed on Wednesday without any amendments, will establish Canada’s second open, commercial, regulated online gambling market after Ontario opened its doors three years ago.

Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) will be the market regulator while still operating Play Alberta, currently the only regulated online gambling platform in the province. A new government agency, the Alberta iGaming Corporation, will conduct and manage the market and contract commercial online sportsbooks and online casinos.

Canadian Gaming Association President and CEO Paul Burns called the passage “a great milestone in the process.”

“The Canadian Gaming Association and its members extend their congratulations to Minister Dale Nally and the Government of Alberta for reaching this significant milestone and advancing towards the provision of regulated iGaming and enhanced consumer protections for its citizens,” added the CGA in a LinkedIn post.

Regulations will paint the picture

While legalization is clearly a vital step, there is a long way to go. Key details, including how many operators will be allowed in and what the tax rate and licensing fees will be, still need to be hashed out and an entire framework of regulations needs to be constructed.

“More details on key regulations and policies related to revenue, consumer protection and specific social responsibility policies will be shared later this year, following further engagement,” said Nally at third reading.

The bill has not faced much strong opposition in Alberta’s Assembly, but key concerns were repeatedly raised by the New Democratic Party (NDP) about the lack of specifics around responsible gambling and player protection in the bill text. A package of NDP amendments was voted down by the committee last week, and similar concerns were voiced at both committee stage and third reading on Wednesday before the bill was passed.

Nally has been unequivocal that responsible gambling should be a regulatory issue, not something written into the legislation. That way, he argued, changes can be made “on a dime” as required by the market rather than needing to go through a legislative process to come into force, offering more efficiency and flexibility.

One thing the bill does include is a centralized self-exclusion platform for gamblers across all commercial regulated sites, the type of which Ontario still does not have in place but is working to construct.

Online gambling is already happening

As was the case in Ontario before that province opened its market, advocates for Bill 48 pointed to the fact that a great deal of online gambling is already being done in Alberta, just without the revenue and player protection benefits of regulatory oversight.

AGLC said last year that it estimates that Play Alberta holds around 45% of the province’s online gambling market by revenue. Data provided to Canadian Gaming Business by H2 Gambling Capital put the share of online sports betting and online casino activity much lower, closer to 25%.

Legalizing and regulating online gambling is touted as an effective way to not only make online gambling safer for players and taxable for the government, but also to bolster consumer choice, drive innovation and create a greater economic benefit for the province via avenues such as direct and indirect job creation. In Ontario, the consensus is that those goals have largely been met.

When can business start?

As for when Alberta might be ready to open its doors, although Nally voiced optimism last fall that the market may be up and running in time fo the next NFL season this coming fall, the consensus today seems to be the first quarter of 2026.

Chief executives of numerous Ontario-licensed operators, including FanDuel, BetMGM, theScore Bet owner PENN Entertainment, BetRivers parent Rush Street Interactive and multi-brand operator Super Group have said this year that they are planning for Q1 2026 market entry.