Lakeland to Enjoy iGaming From 2026

Lakeland residents will soon join their peers in Ontario to enjoy a variety of iGaming and sportsbook wagers from 2026. This is thanks to Bill 48, the iGaming Alberta Act, which has received approval.  Through this, companies in the igaming and sports betting space can legally open up operations in the entire province.

This comes at a fitting time, given that online gambling is becoming so much more popular. In the past, many were content with only gambling at land-based establishments. Now, there’s a myriad of websites and apps that feature thousands of gaming titles and even some designed especially for the virtual world. According to an article by Andjelija Blagojevic, the crop of new online casinos is gaining a ton of attention from players, and this is expected to expand to the Lakeland region as well.

iGaming Coming To Lakeland

For the last few years, Ontario has held a monopoly over iGaming in Canada, being the only province to have legalized it. Since the legalization in 2020, 50 iGaming operators have been licensed in the province and over $2 billion was reported between 2023 and 2024 alone. Soon, residents all over Alberta will be reaping the same benefits. 

Now that the act has been approved, all that is left is to receive the royal assent from Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani. Based on expert predictions, iGaming projects will be able to roll out from late 2025 to early 2026. Industry giants like BetMGM have already confirmed that they’re looking into setting up operations in Alberta. Given the high youth population of the province, it will be a significant battle to capture market share. This is especially true given that the number of approved regulators will not be capped at all.