The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled April 21 that the provincial government of Alberta did not violate Canadian law when the Alberta Gaming & Liquor Commission (AGLC) created the online gaming site PlayAlberta, the Calgary Herald has reported.
The Court of Appeal is the top court in the province. The ruling was made by a three-member panel of the court.
Two First Nations, the Tsuut’ina and Stoney Nakoda, had sued two years ago to force the province to shut down its online gambling site. It first began operating in October 2020 and is the only legally regulated online gaming operation in Alberta according to the government, a fact the tribes dispute. The site offers slots, casino table games, and instant-win lottery games.
The tribes argue that it harms their casino businesses. The Tsuut’ina operates the Grey Eagle Casino. The Stoney Nakoda owns the Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino. Both casinos are near Calgary.
The First Nations in their lawsuit asserted that AGLC exceeded its authority when it became the actual operator of PlayAlberta. AGLC’s remit is regulating liquor, cannabis and gaming, not going into business to operate a casino, they argued.
Alberta is following a model that several Canadian provinces follow, that of overseeing and being gaming operators. However, the model has come under considerable criticism for being a potential conflict of interest and a case of the watchmen watching over themselves.
The tribal lawsuit pointed out that since AGLC is the agency that issues gaming licenses, that it would have to issue itself a license or else illegally operate a casino without a license. They claimed that this violated Canada’s Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act. The panel of the appeals court disagreed.
At the time they filed, the tribes were not allowed to operate their brick-and-mortar sites due to Covid-19 restrictions. The fact that the online PlayAlberta could operate without restrictions was doubly galling to the First Nations. Their lawsuit called the online casino “unauthorized entry” into the province’s gaming market.
Tsuut’ina Gaming CEO and tribal counselor Brent Dodging Horse commented in 2020: “The province has abandoned any sense of partnership with land-based casinos and rolled with their online gaming platform, acting as competition to all casinos and legislating that they are the only ones that can operate this service in Alberta during COVID.”
The appeals court was upholding the decision of Justice Robert Armstrong made on February 24, 2022 to dismiss the case. While agreeing that the nation’s Criminal Code bans lotteries and games of chance the appeal court noted that an exception is made for provincial governments. They are allowed to operate lotteries.
The Code, the court wrote in its opinion, distinguishes between provincial governments and other entities. The government doesn’t need to license itself—it has the inherent right to operate lotteries.
The panel wrote: “Importantly, within (the Criminal Code) is a distinction between a provincial government, which may operate and manage a provincially authorized lottery scheme, and others, who require provincial approval and licensing.”
“This is different than a lottery scheme for which a non-governmental entity is authorized by a gaming license to operate a ‘gaming activity’ on licensed premises, or licensed for on-site VLTs in authorized establishments,” they continued. “The purpose of the provincial government’s ‘provincial lottery’ is to raise funds for general revenue.” It added, “In summary, a province is entitled to conduct and manage a provincially authorized lottery scheme. Such a scheme is authorized in Alberta as a ‘provincial lottery.’ ”
