Being second is not necessarily a bad thing.
Key takeaways
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Alberta plans to launch a competitive online gambling market later this year and can draw on Ontario’s experience to avoid early missteps.
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The new rules require operators to stop all unregulated activities immediately and may limit gray market transition periods.
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Alberta will launch with a centralized self-exclusion system and clear refund rules to prevent bettors from exploiting loopholes.
Alberta, for example, plans to be the second province in Canada to launch a regulated competitive market for online gambling. Several private operators are expected to participate, including bet365, DraftKings and FanDuel, among others (hopefully there will be many more).
When launched, the new iGaming market will be a major game changer in Alberta. The county currently has one entity authorized to submit bids Online sports betting and online casino gamblingThe Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) plays in Alberta.
However, Alberta would benefit from learning lessons from Canada’s most populous province, Ontario.
In April 2022, Ontario became the first and only province in Canada to launch a regulatory framework similar to the one Alberta proposes to introduce. There are now about 50 iGaming operators authorized to offer Sports betting in ontarioThe iCasino and poker, among others.
But Ontario had to learn some lessons the hard way, and that’s only after the launch of the iGaming market. Alberta will be able to incorporate those lessons and address those issues before launch.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did
Does this mean the Alberta market will take off faster than the Ontario market? Not necessarily. When exactly is new? Sports betting in Alberta The market will start working unknown. The safe bet is sometime later this year.
However, it is clear that Alberta is already benefiting from Ontario’s growing pains.
The first edition of the AGLC’s “Internet Gaming Standards and Requirements” was published last week. The rules will apply to private operators launching in the province’s upcoming iGaming market, some of which point out that Alberta has seen things happen in Ontario that it doesn’t want to repeat.
Some standards in Alberta are identical or essentially identical to those established in Ontario. For example, “betting on minor league sports in Canada, including the Canadian Hockey League (CHL),” will be prohibited at iGaming sites regulated in Alberta.
Stop working
However, one prerequisite in Alberta, which did not initially exist in Ontario, is that all regulated operators “You should stop all unorganized gaming activities“.
While what this will look like in practice is a bit vague at the moment, what it does suggest is that there will be a stricter window for any operator doing business in Alberta’s gray market to move into the new regulated market.
In Ontario, there was a long period after the launch of the regulated market where operators who had not yet become regulated were able to continue to operate without being held against them by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
So Alberta could hear less concerns about “gray” operators taking their time before joining the regulated market. Shifting these operators and players into the regulated market is one of the biggest reasons for the initiative.
Another section of the requirements adds: “Registered operators and suppliers of registered goods or services must not enter into any agreements or arrangements with any unregistered person providing any goods or services that may require registration in Alberta.”
Another thing Alberta plans to institute on day one of the new iGaming market is a “centralized” self-exclusion system. This provides a way for the bettor to ban themselves from all iGaming sites in the county at once.
Ontario is still working on launching a centralized self-exclusion tool. The hope is that it will be launched soon. But Alberta wants to be available up front.
One section of the AGLC’s iGaming Standards is dedicated to the centralized self-exclusion program. This section says that all registered operators “shall not allow anyone registered in the AGLC’s self-exclusion program to enter or remain on their iGaming site.”
In other words, if you ban yourself on one censored site, you will not be able to log in and start betting on another site.
Operators will also have to promote the self-exclusion program and “allow players to easily access” the tool through their site.
Another self-exclusion clause, which appears to be based on learning experiments in Ontario, relates to what happens when players press a button.
Once someone disqualifies themselves, Alberta standards say, “the bet is over.”
They add: “Operators must refund a player’s bet if the player registers for a self-exclusion program before the start of an event or series of events on which the outcome of the bet is determined.”
However, Alberta’s iGaming regulator says operators don’t have to allow someone to self-exclude to avoid a potential loss.
“Operators are not required to refund a player’s bet if the player enrolls in a self-exclusion program after the start of an event or series of events on which the outcome of the bet is determined,” the standards say.
In Ontario, regulators have become aware of concerns about online gamblers using the self-exclusion button to avoid losses. Furthermore, someone can use self-exclusion to void a losing bet and also win by betting on the other side using another operator’s site.
Agco Eventually updated its standards To clarify the rules regarding cancellation and refund of bets for self-excluded players. Ontario’s self-exclusion protocols are now the same as Alberta proposes to implement when launching the iGaming market.
This article originally appeared on Covers.comRead the full article here