Where Alberta Can Learn From Ontario’s Success and Failures With The Launch of Their Regulated Gambling Industry

In 2022 Ontario became the first Canadian province with a fully regulated, online gambling industry. Since then, there have been over 70 licences granted to online casinos and sportsbooks in the province.

In early 2026, Alberta is expected to follow suit, but what lessons can be learned from Ontario’s decision to open up to private companies in 2022?

Why Ontario Legalised Online Gambling

The simple answer would be common sense. Firstly, the Covid-19 pandemic had brought Canada’s approach to online gambling into sharp contrast with the rest of the world. Over the pond in the UK, and south of the border in the US, attitudes were either totally liberal to online gambling, or on their way to being so.

With casinos and sports betting shops closing up during the pandemic that left Canadian gambling fans without a legal outlet to enjoy their hobby. Legal being the key word, as many sports wagering and roulette spinning fans were left with no other option than to sign up with overseas betting companies.

In the absence of a regulated domestic market, online casino companies and sports betting sites from the UK and farther afield began to offer their services to Canadians in earnest - at one point in 2022 it was estimated that Canadians were spending $4 billion annually with overseas gambling providers.

In short then, Ontario opened their own regulated online gambling industry to satisfy the growing demands of consumers, and, to stop the haemorrhaging of Canadian dollars to foreign companies.

Ontario’s Great Success

The biggest success of regulated online casino gambling in Ontario to date has been the rate of adoption by gamblers. Online gambling and sports betting has been around for over decades, and since the advent of the smartphone, has become incredibly easy to access.

That means that Ontarians with a penchant for online wagering have had over 15 years to build up brand loyalty with overseas gambling companies that stepped in to fill the void left by Canada’s antiquated laws.

In order to break this loyalty and encourage Ontarians to play with domestic companies, a huge advertising campaign was launched to firstly let people know that online gambling and sports betting was legal, but secondly to make them aware of the pitfalls of wagering with overseas companies.

By the numbers, this campaign was a rip roaring success. The most recently available figures show that 86% of online gamblers in the province wager with licensed, regulated sites, which is a staggeringly high number considering the recent nature of the legislative changes.

Ontario’s Biggest Failure

There are positives and negatives to every decision and, whilst Ontario’s advertising campaign regarding regulation was undoubtedly a positive, the province’s later failure to correctly police private advertising has been a real negative.

The world of advertising in always changing, and in Ontario’s rush to push the good news of regulation, the province allowed too much leeway to gambling companies to advertise their products and services. Gambling ads weren’t just plastered all over the internet and social media, but they were also broadcast on television and radio, day and night.

During the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff tie against the Florida Panthers, almost 9 minutes of online gambling commercials were screened to viewers. Not only was that blatantly overkill, but it was also advertising that was aired to children which is undoubtedly wrong.

The biggest shame here was that Ontario only had to look across the Atlantic to the example of the UK to see what not to do when it comes to advertising. The British government have been plagued by complaints about advertising – particularly to children – ever since the establishment of the Gambling Commission in the 2000s.

Helping Albertans Navigate the Online Casino Market

As Alberta prepares to launch its regulated online gambling industry, players will face a highly competitive landscape, with multiple licensed platforms vying for attention. To help consumers make informed choices, Casino.ca reviews the top ranked casino sites in Alberta, highlighting platforms that combine fair games, attractive bonuses, and responsible practices. By pointing players toward trusted providers, Albertans can enjoy a safer and more enjoyable gambling experience, while the province maintains a regulated, competitive market that encourages responsible play.

In Summary: What Alberta Can Learn From Ontario

The lessons detailed above are only brief, surface summaries, but they do hold lessons for Albertan lawmakers. Lessons that they would be remiss not to learn from.

A public advertising campaign that highlights the dangers of wagering with overseas suppliers definitely does need to be carried out here in Alberta, but that can’t come at the expense of a Wild West of gambling advertising. The province has a duty of care to its citizens to steer them away from danger. That means they have to find the balance between yanking them too abruptly away from unscrupulous foreign providers and straight into the hands of unscrupulous domestic providers.