Any blow to online poker or paid daily fantasy contests in Alberta caused by the coming regulation of internet gambling in the province could be weaker than the one dealt to Ontario — and because of Ontario, too.
Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally told Covers last week that the Western Canadian province plans to pool liquidity with Ontario when Alberta launches its competitive market for online sports betting and casino gambling.
That could help preserve paid DFS contests and online poker games in the Alberta sports betting and iGaming market once it goes live, which could be by late 2025.
“We’re going to join Ontario in terms of liquidity and hopefully have similar, like-minded provinces follow suit,” Nally said in an interview in Las Vegas.
DFS doomsday
Alberta’s launch date for its competitive iGaming market is still to be determined, as the provincial government wants to enact “enabling” legislation before signing contracts with operators. When the market goes live, though, multiple private-sector operators of online sports betting, casino gaming, and poker sites could participate.
In the meantime, the government-owned Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) currently boasts the only “regulated” online gambling platform in the province, the agency’s Play Alberta brand.
However, when Ontario debuted a market similar to the one Alberta is planning, it shrank the player pool for poker and DFS. That was because Ontario regulations for online gambling (and it considers paid DFS gambling) require operators to only offer games within the province and to block players from outside Ontario’s borders from participating.
The rules prompted DraftKings and FanDuel to shutter their daily fantasy businesses in the province — although they now offer online sports betting, slots, and table games — and has helped prevent other operators from joining the regulated iGaming market. This has grated on DFS and poker fans in Ontario, who may find themselves with nothing, little, or less to play.
Nally’s comments suggest Ontario’s player pool could expand when Alberta launches its competitive iGaming market. The joining of the two provinces could deepen the pool of daily fantasy and poker players in Ontario, and perhaps keep the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel, PrizePicks, and Underdog from shutting down paid DFS contests in Alberta.
Got one here for all the folks asking me when paid DFS contests are coming back to Ontario:
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) October 1, 2024
Explaining Ontario’s Daily Fantasy, Poker, and Sports Betting-Related Court Case https://t.co/pi86RGnvOJ @Covers
Furthermore, Ontario is asking its Court of Appeal if it is legal to let its online gamblers compete against players outside of Canada. If the answer comes back “yes,” it could expand the potential player pool for DFS and poker in Ontario to include participants from the United States and beyond.
A favorable ruling could benefit Alberta’s iGaming market as well. The province would then have a legal decision it could cite to allow locally regulated operators to tap the same sources of international liquidity for DFS and poker.
“We’re also watching very closely what [Ontario is] doing in their lawsuit and we’re optimistic that we’re on the right side on this one and could have some global liquidity that would help all our markets,” Nally said.
See you in court
Ontario’s question about harnessing some global liquidity may not be answered until 2025. The provincial government’s online gambling reference is scheduled to be heard by the Court of Appeal in late November, and an answer will come later.
Yet Ontario believes the court should give it the green light.
“The hypothetical lottery scheme described … would be lawful because it would have a real and substantial connection to the province: it would be established and carried out in accordance with provincial legislation; only individuals physically located in Ontario could access it; and it would be conducted and managed by Ontario, with the province dictating its fundamental elements,” the Attorney General of Ontario said in an Oct. 11 factum filed with the appeals court. “Permitting the scheme’s players to participate in games and betting that share liquidity with individuals located outside of Canada does not weaken this connection.”
Ontario said in its factum that its "closed liquidity model" leads to "fewer and significantly less lucrative peer-to-peer games being available to individuals in Ontario through iGaming," meaning fewer poker tables and poker players and smaller betting pools.
This, the province added, makes "unregulated alternative gaming sites" that have pooled liquidity more appealing to local players, undermining the Ontario sports betting and iGaming market.
“Moving away from a closed liquidity model would ensure that iGaming remains an attractive option and would discourage Ontarians from using unregulated gaming sites,” the factum states. “This approach would better protect the public by ensuring that the harms associated with online gambling are addressed and would provide for greater returns to the public purse.”
Questions have been asked about what it would mean if Ontario — and, now, potentially Alberta — can tap into international liquidity pools but continue to block locals from playing against users in other parts of Canada.
For example: Would there be Alberta and Ontario-only DFS contests or poker games? And would those games include international players but prohibit participants from other provinces? Could the script get flipped on players in those other provinces, and suddenly dry up liquidity there?
A 'grey' area
Ontario and Alberta are thus far the only provinces to launch or announce their intention to launch competitive iGaming markets. Most other Canadian jurisdictions have been content to grant a legal monopoly on online gambling to government-owned entities.
That means any DFS or poker sites operating outside Ontario (and, eventually, Alberta) could be doing business without being subject to local regulation, or acting in the "grey" market.
It's unclear what operators would do if they come under regulation in Alberta and Ontario and can access liquidity from there and around the world, but not from any other provinces within Canada. Nally was also unsure.
“I can only tell you we’re going to define the regulated space,” Alberta’s iGaming minister told Covers. “We’re going to make it as seamless as possible for them to enter the market. We want to make it as attractive as possible. And at the end of the day, that’s the market that we’re going to define. How [companies] then go about operating in the grey space outside of Alberta, I can’t answer that. That will be up to them.”
