Indigenous Gaming Partners (IGP) has been approved to buy multi-casino operator Gamehost, expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint in Alberta to seven casinos and two hotels.
The First Nations group already owns four land-based casinos in the province via its takeover of Pure Casino Entertainment last year. It announced in late March that it had agreed to acquire Gamehost, which owns and operates:
- Deerfoot Inn & Casino in Calgary
- Great Northern Casino in Grande Prairie
- Rivers Casino and Entertainment Centre in Fort McMurray
- The Service Plus Inns & Suites and Encore Suites by Service Plus hotels in Grande Prairie
IGP will take ownership of all of those facilities once a subsidiary of Pure buys all outstanding common shares of Gamehost for $13.65 in cash per share. Gamehost’s shareholders approved the transaction on June 11 at a special meeting, and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta has now granted the final order authorizing the M&A deal.
While Pure will own the Gamehost casinos’ operating assets, VICI Properties Inc. will own the real estate through a sale-leaseback agreement, expanding the company’s own Canadian presence.
VICI owns a large North American casino real estate portfolio including Caesars Palace, the Venetian and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and has owned the real estate assets of IGP’s Pure-branded casinos since January 2023.
Pure readies Alberta iGaming brand
IGP’s acquisition of Gamehost is expected to close before the end of June.
That timeline would give IGP and Pure Casino Entertainment a portfolio of seven casinos in Alberta, just weeks before the province launches its commercial online gambling market. Online casino is expected to be a large proportion of Alberta’s iGaming by handle and revenue, similar to Ontario’s commercial online gambling market.
IGP wants a piece of the action.
The Indigenous gaming company, formed in 2024 as a partnership between five Nova Scotia-based First Nations and Sonco Gaming Inc., has applied through its Pure Casino Entertainment Ltd. Partnership operating entity to launch an online gambling arm.
Alberta’s iGaming market is set to open on July 13. As of the time of writing, Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis lists 47 registered operators, including multiple provincial brick-and-mortar operators in Pure and River Cree Resort and Casino.
“We want to see as many land-based operators in Alberta participating in the online space [as possible],” said Alberta’s minister responsible for iGaming, Dale Nally, at SBC Summit Canada 2026 in Toronto last month. “… We are certainly encouraging land-based operators to participate in the space, and we also want to see First Nations in Alberta participating in the online gaming space.”
Pure Casino Entertainment and River Cree iGaming will compete with a long list of big-name North American and European online gambling brands in Alberta’s open market, including the likes of:
- bet365
- BetMGM
- BetRivers
- Caesars
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- PointsBet
- theScore Bet
