Premier Plans to Use Revenue to Fight Problem Gambling in Alberta
The Alberta gaming market has been alive for just over two weeks. Already, Premier Danielle Smith has a plan to allocate some of the province’s revenue to fighting problem gambling in Alberta.
Speaking on her weekly radio program, Smith said that Alberta plans to enact new rules regarding advertising and support for problem gambling. Specifically, her government wants to ensure that self-excluded players as well as people too young to legally bet don’t have ads targeted toward them.
Additionally, Alberta residents won’t see the likes of Connor McDavid or Morgan Frost advertising for any sportsbooks. Professional sports athletes will be banned from gambling advertisements in Alberta, so as not to use familiar names to encourage betting.
Smith said that’s something that her government had wanted to do, but could not because most sportsbooks and casinos operated in the gray market. Now that they’re legal and regulated, Alberta can do something about their advertisements.
“Those are all the things we wanted to build in,” Smith said. “We knew that they were operating in our market, but they didn’t have those additional measures.”
What Changes Exist Regarding Problem Gambling in Alberta?
One of the big ones is that self-exclusion now applies across the board to all legal gambling operators in Alberta. Previously, if a person wanted to self-exclude, they needed to do so at every provider individually, or have the willpower to not search and log on.
Now, entering self-exclusion once applies to all providers across the province. If someone knows they have a gambling problem, they can simply ask for self-exclusion and betting operators must comply. Additionally, Smith’s government plans not to allow advertising to target anyone on the exclusion list.
That includes anyone under 18. While some advertising will be unavoidable, the provincial government can restrict ads at certain times and to certain websites. Smith didn’t give details, but suggested that ads won’t be allowed to target minors.
How Does Alberta Plan to Use iGaming Revenue?
Smith’s vision means Alberta will have a smaller pie of revenue to pull from. The province had already planned to take 20% of revenue from gaming operators, leaving the remaining 80% for the providers. That still leaves $76 million for the province if Alberta meets projected revenue for the year.
Funding efforts to fight problem gambling in Alberta likely won’t be cheap. The province has already seen a fair amount of increased advertising. It’s unclear if that will continue, as Alberta’s gambling ads weren’t coming from nothing. The province had already seen ads coming from Ontario, the largest market in Canada by far.
Smith didn’t go into details, but Ontario’s stats suggests a robust figure might be needed to fight problem gambling in Alberta. Since Ontario legalized gambling across the province, stats suggest that calls to the provincial helpline increased by more than 300%.
Officials Remain Focused on Regulations
That’s probably why Smith and other top officials in Alberta have focused less on revenue and more on regulations. Both Smith and Alberta iGaming CEO Dan Keene suggested that Alberta residents have shown they’re going to play with or without regulations in place.
In their eyes, that means their best move is to offer regulated play that funds the province.
“The mandate of our market is channelization,” Keene said on the iGaming Daily Podcast. “It’s not to grow iGaming. Will iGaming grow? I’m sure it will. But the mandate is to channelize a market that’s already been here for decades.”
