• Majority of gamblers in Alberta and BCMajority of gamblers in Alberta and BC use offshore gambling websites
• The majority of gamblers in Alberta and British Columbia continue to gamble offshore exclusively
• More than 50% of all people who do it are not even aware that they are playing offshore

The provinces are looking to switch to license-based models in the hopes of boosting channelization

A new study conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Canadian Gaming Association has found that the vast majority of online gamblers in Alberta and British Columbia are exclusively playing with offshore and unregulated gambling platforms.

Unregulated gambling dominates both Alberta and BC

The survey, conducted between February 24 and March 24, interviewed 1,319 players in Alberta and 1,312 players in British Columbia, with these gamblers participating in both online casino gambling as well as sports betting.

Ipsos interviewed respondents who were 18+ and who had gambled in the past three months, and who had mentioned at least one real-money gambling website or sportsbook. The findings raised eyebrows, as the two provinces’ channelization rate – i.e. the share of players who play with the locally available licensed and regulated gambling websites – is deplorably low.

In Alberta, only 1 in 10 gamblers, for example, uses the province-backed platform, PlayAlberta, with 77.3% of all players in the province in fact exclusively playing on unregulated websites in the surveyed period.

This is a lot, and it shows that Alberta’s decision to switch to a license-based model is the right one, given that local players are not actively engaging with the current platform. Part of this can be explained by the fact that players are not aware of what constitutes a regulated gambling platform.

For example, in Alberta, 93% of players knew that PlayAlberta was a regulated website, but only 55% of gamblers who had registered at unregulated websites were aware that these websites were not allowed in the province.

In British Columbia, the rate was 96% and 51%, respectively, indicating that the licensed gambling platform was well-known, but this did not mean that people were aware that there were no other licensed platforms.

Switching away from the monopoly to invite more operators in

The effects are visible in the Ipsos study. In British Columbia, 60.4% of respondents said that they used unregulated gambling websites only, although 39.6% have also wagered on the PlayNow platform in the province. Commenting on these findings, Casino Guru Head of Casino Research, Matej Novota, said:

A monopoly cannot be sustained when unregulated alternatives are just a click away. Without aggressive enforcement, which too is most commonly an unsustainable model, offshore websites proliferate, even with provincial platforms in place. A provincial monopoly only works if the provincial platform consistently outperforms offshore competitors, but in Alberta and BC, that gap simply doesn’t exist. If offshore sites offer a better experience than the legal ones, and the government isn’t actively challenging them, players won’t hesitate; they’ll just use offshore casinos and sportsbooks instead.

The fact that half of those who engaged with unregulated websites were not aware of the fact is indicative that the provinces have failed to properly raise awareness, which is a common issue in jurisdictions that insist on concentrating their gambling industry into a single entity.

This is precisely why British Columbia is also expected to fully switch to a non-monopoly-based market in the coming months, inviting more operators, much like Ontario has.

However, Ontario also has a long way to go, as the channelization rate in the province is set at around 84%, with 20.2% of players still engaging with the unregulated market through offshore platforms, as confirmed in an Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario survey, which used offshore gambling websites.

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