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When Alberta opened its legal iGaming marketplace on July 13, more than 60 sites were pre-approved.
But as of Monday, 35 sites were up and running, including Betway, which just launched its Alberta operations this past week.
And time is running out for the other 30 or so to launch.
When the market launched, many operators who were pre-approved didn’t have their platforms ready for legal play. A three-month extension was given to all operators.
And the end of that extension comes on Oct. 13. Dale Nally, Alberta’s Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, said that no more grace periods will be given. So,when the clock strikes midnight on Oct. 13, for all sites that were pre-approved as of July 13, you’re either in, or you’re out.
“We have been very clear that the deadline is October 13th,” said Nally. “We went live July 13th, and we realized that there were a lot of casino operators in Alberta coming in at the same time, and we wouldn’t be able to manage them all by the date of July 13th. So we gave a 90-day extension to anyone who needed it, but we’ve been very clear. That’s the drop-dead date. And so, as of October 13th, if you’re not in the market, then you are an illicit operator.”
But, if an operator missed the Oct. 13 deadline, can it reapply? Nally said the answer is likely yes, but that operator will start over from scratch. So it would likely be months before a site could be launched.
“If someone said to us, ‘OK, you know what? We want in.’ Then we are going to let them reapply and come into our market,” said Nally. “But they’re going to have to demonstrate that they’re going to embrace the social responsibility, the player safety that we have put at the forefront of everything that we’ve done. So, we’re not going to say no to any operator that is going to embrace safety. But let’s be clear. We have been very generous with our entry and our extension of 90 days. After October 13th, we’re going to start treating them like illicit operators if they’re not in our market.”
Nally expects a flood of sites to go online through the week, as operators put on last-second pushes to get off the ground before the grace period ends early next week.
“We are over 30 now, and I’m expecting that to be close to 60,’ said Nally. “We may even hit 65 by October 13th. We are expecting a lot to go, and we had several meetings with those companies that were on the final days of just crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, and so I’m very optimistic that there’s going to be a big influx of operators that are in by October 13th. In fact, I didn’t really hear from anyone who said they just needed another 30 days and they could have done it. The operators that I met with were all very bullish that they’re going to be here by October 13th.
