Alberta lawmakers have voted down amendments proposed by the New Democratic Party (NDP) to enshrine responsible gaming measures in the province’s iGaming legislation.
On April 16, lawmakers referred Minister Dale Nally‘s Bill 48 to the legislature’s Committee of the Whole after it passed its second reading.
If it becomes law, the iGaming Alberta Act would create a legal framework for Alberta’s commercial gambling market. It would also establish the Alberta iGaming Corporation to oversee the market under the regulatory watch of Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC). AGLC will also maintain its Play Alberta online platform.
However, before Bill 48 advanced, the provincial NDP voiced concerns about the bill’s lack of details. In particular, the party noted a lack of safeguards for responsible gambling (RG) and player protection.
Nally says RG better tackled by regulations
Then, last week, one of the bill’s most vocal critics, NDP MLA Gurinder Brar, proposed several amendments. One would have required the government to establish an online, evidence-based RG program. Another would have forced the Alberta iGaming Corporation to share annual public reports and perform mandatory independent evaluations to measure its efficacy.
In the chamber, Brar said the amendments were necessary to fix the proposed legislation before it becomes law.
The basic process of public policy is to design it, to implement it, and to evaluate it. And if there are gaps, those gaps must be addressed and fixed. And that’s exactly what these amendments are.
In response, Nally argued that responsible gambling programs should be addressed as a regulatory rather than a legal issue.
We don’t want to put player safety in legislation. We want to put it in regulation so that if we see something we want to turn around on a dime, we’re able to do it through an order in council, not a new piece of legislation.
Debating player safety at this point is unnecessary, he added.
I’m saying this to make the conversations shorter around this room: We don’t have to debate player safety, gambling responsibility. There is no light between us. I assure you, we are all 100% aligned … But we’re going to do it in the most efficient and effective manner possible, and that’s through regulation.
NDP argues ‘deeply incomplete’ bill requires redress
In support of Brar’s amendments, NDP MLA Nathan Ip said the “deeply incomplete” legislation could have long-term consequences for Albertans.
The iGaming Alberta Act, a piece of legislation that will create a new Crown corporation charged with regulating online gambling in our province, at its face presents itself as a modern solution to an evolving industry, but the reality is it’s deeply incomplete. It invites more questions than answers, and its vague provisions leave too much room for missteps that could have lasting consequences on Alberta’s people, communities, and economy.
Ip added that without safeguards enshrined, the risk is that these protections will come too late, if at all.
MLA Joe Ceci, another NDP, suggested the amendments “fit very easily into the bill that’s before us” and noted the legislation already includes standard player protection requirements.
There are the same kinds of ideas in both the amendments and what’s listed here in Bill 48 on page 19 with respect to further regulations that are going to get fleshed out in the future, so, you know, asking now to put those in legislation is not such a big leap, as was suggested a little while ago by the minister. I think the minister’s comments about being a little more responsible, being safer, having player safety first is exactly what’s proposed in these amendments.
In the end, despite the support of his NDP peers, Brar’s amendments were ultimately defeated in a 38-16 vote.
Once the committee approves the bill, which seems inevitable, it will return to the full legislature for its third and final reading and vote. And a United Conservative Party (UCP) majority means it’s likely Bill 48 will pass soon.
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