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Alberta sports betting and online casinos went live on July 13, 2026. In one month of operations, there have already been concerns raised about the oversaturation of gambling advertisements that have permeated media within the province.
According to CBC News, University of Alberta marketing professor Paul Messinger is worried that so many gambling ads could increase addiction rates for youth.
With how easily accessible sports betting and online casino gambling are through mobile, Albertans exposed to such aggressive marketing can place a bet through a couple of taps in the comfort of their own homes. The risk is that it can entice underage individuals to try to place a wager.
The issue of underage gambling has popped up in Ontario, where Betty Gaming was recently fined after its age verification tools did not function properly.
Dan Keene, CEO of the Alberta iGaming Corporation, addressed these concerns to CBC News, stating that there are restrictions in place to ensure that advertisements do not target minors.
This includes the following safeguards:
The goal here is to limit the influence of these ads on minors, but the heavy marketing is unavoidable since operators are trying to be sustainable in a competitive environment.
The main reason why Albertans feel overly inundated with gambling ads is that it’s a brand new market. This is a time when operators are aggressively marketing to try to get new signups. They’re battling for market share in a competitive environment with 26 operators already live within the province.
To that end, the reasonable expectation is that ads will slow down in a few months, once the market settles. However, looking at the example of Ontario iGaming, gambling advertisements are still heavily involved, whether it’s a live venue or a broadcast of local sporting events.
We saw this issue come to the forefront during the World Cup, when Stan Cho, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture, and gaming, pushed for more restrictions on gambling advertising during such a massive global event.
With that in mind, even though Ontario has seen a slowdown in gambling advertisements as the market has matured over the years, it’s still an ongoing issue.
Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally stated that advertisements are necessary to deter individuals from playing at offshore gaming sites, which don’t have consumer safeguards in place like regulated platforms.
So even though this heavy saturation of gambling ads is similar to the issue in Ontario, Nally outlined how Alberta learned from that example. The province has implemented a system-wide self-exclusion from Day 1, which was not done in Ontario. This allows individuals experiencing problem gambling to remove themselves from all Alberta platforms with a click of a button.
The goal with this easy access is to make it simple for players to get the help they need while removing themselves from Alberta iGaming sites.
With that improvement in responsible gaming access combined with advertising restrictions, Alberta is taking a proactive approach to addressing problem gambling, even as concerns are raised by residents.
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