Alberta’s regulated iGaming market: the first two months in numbers
Alberta went live on 13 July 2026 with 22 approved sites, while nearly 50 companies had paid registration fees. Play Alberta is still open.
Alberta’s regulated online gambling market opened on 13 July 2026 with 22 operator sites approved on day one, while more operators were still working through registration with the regulator, AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis). Nearly 50 companies had paid registration and permit fees before launch, so the gap between “registered” and “live” is the number to watch as the market settles.
Launch day: 22 sites, nearly 50 companies
On 13 July 2026 Alberta became the second province after Ontario to let private operators take bets under provincial oversight. The Alberta iGaming Corporation’s launch release said: “As of launch, 22 registered iGaming sites were approved to offer regulated iGaming services in Alberta.”
The Globe and Mail (13 July 2026) put the number of companies that had paid registration and permit fees before launch at nearly 50. Registration with AGLC only clears the regulatory hurdle. An operator also needs a signed commercial agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC), the Crown corporation that runs the business side of the market, before it can accept a single Alberta wager. That two-step model explains the gap: nearly 50 companies had paid registration fees, and 22 sites went live on day one.
After launch: steady additions
GeoComply, which runs location checks for operators, said on 21 July 2026 that more than 100,000 Albertans had signed up through platforms using its technology in the first week, and that its partners had run more than 3.2 million geolocation checks in that period.
AiGC’s own directory of approved iGaming sites keeps growing as operating agreements are signed: it listed 34 approved sites when we checked it on 30 September 2026 and 51 on 28 October 2026. Several listed sites share a parent company, so the number of separate operators behind them is lower than the site count. Our Canada iGaming tracker holds the current count.
Suppliers keep arriving
Game studios need AGLC registration too. Games Global is among the critical gaming systems providers registered with AGLC. When we checked AGLC’s list of registrants on 28 October 2026, it named 66 iGaming critical gaming systems providers and 17 iGaming platform providers. Alberta’s framework was built to mirror Ontario’s, so suppliers already approved in Ontario have a shorter compliance path in Alberta.
Play Alberta stays
The provincially run site, Play Alberta, did not close when the private operators arrived. It continues to operate under AGLC’s direction and management, and existing accounts and balances carry on as before. Play Alberta now sits alongside the private sites as one option among many.
What it means for players
Every regulated Alberta site must connect to AGLC’s centralised self-exclusion programme and offer deposit and loss limits and time limits. The minimum age in Alberta is 18, lower than the 19 required in Ontario and British Columbia. Before opening an account, confirm the brand appears in AiGC’s directory of approved iGaming sites, which is the only reliable way to tell a regulated Alberta site from an offshore one that happens to accept Albertans. We update operator counts for every province on the Canada iGaming tracker.
Gambling can be addictive. Please play responsibly and within your means.