How to get a gambling licence in Alberta: fees and steps

Alberta applies a seasoning requirement that most jurisdictions do not. It is stated as an eligibility requirement, not a scoring factor, and nothing else in this guide matters until you clear it.

• Active AGLC registration under Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act s. 49.2.
• Minimum three years of operational history in a regulated North American jurisdiction.
• A comprehensive financial audit.
• Independent RG Check accreditation from the Responsible Gambling Council, before you can sign with AiGC.
• A working API integration with AGLC’s centralized self-exclusion system, before you can sign with AiGC.

Laws that apply

• iGaming Alberta Act, SA 2025, c. I-0.2
• Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act, RSA 2000, c. G-1, ss. 49.1–49.91
• Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Regulation, AR 143/96, ss. 34.6–34.9
• AGLC Standards and Requirements for Internet Gaming (SRIG), 18 June 2026

AGLC registers and regulates. AiGC signs the commercial agreement that lets a registered site go live. Registration alone is not enough, and since 18 June 2026 that is a statutory requirement rather than a commercial one.

The single most consequential commercial fact in the Alberta framework, and it is not visible from the fee schedule alone.

• Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act s. 49.1(3) bars a supplier from operating on any electronic channel not named on its registration.
• SRIG 2.2.10 requires a separate application, and a separate non-refundable application fee, for each distinct iGaming site.
• SRIG 2.2.11 requires a separate non-refundable annual registration fee for each distinct site.
• This is why AiGC’s public register lists sites and brands rather than corporate groups: 35 registered sites, each on its own web address, on 5 October 2026, with bet365, Caesars, FanDuel and theScore each appearing twice because their casino and sportsbook are registered as separate sites.

AGLC’s published schedule, plus one cost line that sits outside it.

• Both operator fees are non-refundable and payable before a registration is issued.
• On top of the fees, Regulation s. 13.2 requires an initial deposit of $10,000, or another amount AGLC specifies, to cover the cost of background checks.
• For comparison, Ontario charges $100,000 per site per year with no application fee, and lets the applicant elect a one or two-year term.

Alberta sets no ownership percentage at all. If you are used to Ontario’s 5% shareholder threshold, this is the section that will surprise your corporate team.

• “Financial interest” under Regulation s. 1(e) includes any direct, indirect or contingent interest: as owner (partial or otherwise), beneficial owner, shareholder, or owner through trusteeship or investment.
• It also includes an interest in management by management or partnership agreement.
• And it includes having loaned or advanced money or anything of value, with or without security. A lender is an associate.
• Associates (SRIG 2.4) cover anyone with a financial interest in the applicant or its business, and their spouse or interdependent partner. For an individual applicant (or a partnership with an individual partner) they also include the individual’s spouse, resident relatives, controlled corporations with their officers, directors and financial-interest holders, and any corporation affiliated with a controlled corporation, with its officers, directors and financial-interest holders. For a corporate applicant (or a partnership with a corporate partner) they include its officers and directors, their spouses and resident relatives, any corporation affiliated with the applicant, and that corporation’s officers, directors and financial-interest holders. The spouse or interdependent partner of each such person is included.
• The check covers the applicant’s key employees (SRIG 2.4), and the operator must tell AGLC immediately of a change among them.
• Regulation s. 9 reaches employees, associates and “any person with connections to” the applicant.

There is no gambling tax in Alberta. What you pay is a revenue share under the operating agreement, plus corporate income tax, plus the fees above: three things on three different bases.

SRIG Part 5 is the most prescriptive part of Alberta’s framework, and the part most likely to need work even for an operator already live elsewhere in Canada.

• Data centres and remote gaming servers must be approved by AGLC, including data residency designation, cross-border transfer assessment and encryption key residency review. Ontario has no equivalent requirement at all.
• Geolocation: games only within Alberta unless conducted with another province’s government; block play when location cannot be verified; detect and block known VPNs, proxies, remote desktop and virtualization; re-verify periodically and log each check in tamper-evident form.
• Logs for critical gaming systems must be protected against alteration, SRIG names WORM or immutability, or cryptographic signing with SHA-256, and carried over TLS 1.2+, with a SIEM correlating integrity events.
• No auto-play for slots, and no combining multiple slot titles in a way that facilitates simultaneous play.
• No near-miss manufacturing for games other than sport and event betting (SRIG 4.10.1(b)): after the outcome is selected the game must not make a secondary decision that substitutes a particular type of loss.
• Provincial health cards are not acceptable identification at registration: a trap for any onboarding flow ported from another market.
• Live dealer table games must follow the rules of play in AGLC’s Casino Terms and Conditions and Operating Guidelines, Section 6.1: a land-based instrument.

A Technology Compliance Confirmation and an independently audited Control Activity Matrix. The first repeats every year.

• Operators, and suppliers running critical gaming systems, file the Confirmation annually: a letter signed by the CEO (or equivalent) and Chief Compliance Officer (or equivalent), confirming the Alberta technology complies with all related standards and that every game will be ATF-certified before deployment and supplied by a registered supplier.
• It must carry: an overview of the full technology solution naming every registered supplier and third-party integration; independent security vulnerability assessment results; internal and external penetration test results; SOC 2 or ISO 27001 for each data centre or cloud provider; a description of how geolocation controls were validated for accuracy and effectiveness across most expected player device and connection types, including dynamic location monitoring and detection of common circumvention methods; and the mechanisms verifying installed software is ATF-certified and intact.
• Findings need management responses with risk assessment, remediation plans and compensating controls. Severe security risks must be addressed before go-live, and remediation should be verified by a further scan.
• An operator’s Control Activity Matrix must be independently audited (SRIG 4.14.3), by an internal function that did not build it, or an external auditor, with the results submitted alongside. A supplier running critical gaming systems needs a CAM available to AGLC on request, and its Confirmation letter must say it has one.
• SRIG 4.12.1 names gaming platforms, but the note to SRIG 4.13.3 says they do not need ATF certification; they do need the Technology Compliance Confirmation, and the operator’s Confirmation must cover the integration of third-party systems into the platform.

The statutory floor is Regulation s. 34.7. The operative detail is SRIG 4.1, and a voluntary national code goes further again.

• Inducements, bonuses and credits may not be advertised at all, including algorithmic advertising, except on your own gaming site and through direct marketing after express player consent.
• SRIG bars active or retired athletes who have an agreement or arrangement with a registrant, except exclusively to advocate responsible gambling. AiGC’s public summary drops that qualifier. The Canadian Gaming Association code goes furthest and bars any recognized athlete, paid or not, except in advertising exclusively advocating responsible gambling.
• No cartoons, symbols, role models, social-media influencers, celebrities or entertainers likely to appeal to minors; no one who is or appears to be a minor.
• No outdoor displays directly adjacent to schools or youth-oriented locations. SRIG states no distance; the CGA code sets 200 m, which is the only number available.
• Target only 18+ on social media, drop self-excluded players from marketing lists the moment they register, and make efforts to avoid advertising outside Alberta.
• Google Ads requires province-only targeting as a condition of certification, so the geo rule binds twice. Google Play treats Alberta as its own region, allowing online casino games and sports betting.
• Display the AiGC logo and direct players to 211 Alberta.

Alberta’s harm-identification standard is unusually enumerated, and the centralized self-exclusion integration is a precondition of signing with AiGC.

• Deposit and loss limits settable at registration or later, over periods that must include 24 hours, 7 days and one month; where a player sets several, the lowest applies.
• A short break in play of one day, one week, one month, two months or three months, separate from self-exclusion.
• Players must affirm fitness to play before participating.
• Self-exclusion is AGLC-centralized, for a period the player chooses between six months and three years, and the player picks the scope: land-based venues, regulated iGaming platforms, or both.
• You must hold a live API connection to AGLC’s system, prevent an enrolled player from registering or logging in, drop them from all marketing on notification, and return unused balances on request.
• A wager ends on enrolment, and must be refunded if the player enrolled before the event started: not after.
• SRIG Attachment 3.3 names seven indicator families you must monitor: behaviour, spend, time, account, customer-service contact, gambling-management-tool use, and player background.
• Responsible-gambling training for management and staff at the start of employment and at least every 24 months.

Federal law, provincial plumbing. AiGC is the designated reporting entity and your controls must align to its policies.

• Implement a full AML/CTF programme compliant with the PCMLTFA, its regulations, FINTRAC guidance and the designated reporting entity’s own policies.
• Risk-based escalating measures against money-laundering, terrorist-financing and sanctions-evasion indicators, up to refusing transactions or excluding the player.
• Define when you will ascertain and corroborate a player’s source of funds.
• Retain copies of all FINTRAC-related reports and supporting records submitted to AiGC, available to AGLC under the Notification Matrix.
• No cryptocurrency for deposits or withdrawals; fiat only, through recognised compliant institutions.
• Discrepancy reports, security breaches and illegal activity, within 24 hours. Reporting suspected crime immediately is a condition of registration.
• Contact AGLC or police before running an internal investigation that may involve criminal activity, and secure any potential evidence.

The route to a live Alberta operation, in build order. The eligibility gate and the background-check mapping are the two things to settle before you spend anything; RG Check accreditation and the self-exclusion integration are the two long poles that gate signature with AiGC, so start them early and in parallel.

1. 01

   Clear the eligibility gate

   AiGC eligibility

   Confirm three years of operating history in a regulated North American jurisdiction, and be ready to evidence it. Confirm you can pass a comprehensive financial audit. If either is missing, stop here: no amount of technical readiness substitutes.

2. 02

   Map the background-check perimeter

   Regulation ss. 1(e), 9, 9.1

   List every person and entity with a financial interest on Alberta’s definition, including lenders, secured or not, plus key employees, controlled and affiliated corporations, and the spouses and resident relatives the regulation reaches. There is no percentage threshold to hide behind. Budget the $10,000 initial deposit under s. 13.2.

3. 03

   Decide how many sites you are launching

   GLCA s. 49.1(3); SRIG 2.2.10–2.2.11

   Each distinct iGaming site is its own application, its own $50,000 application fee and its own $150,000 annual fee. Settle the site count before you model the business case, because this is the line that moves most.

4. 04

   Start RG Check accreditation

   Responsible Gambling Council

   Independent RG Check accreditation is a precondition of signing the AiGC operating agreement, and it is an assessment of your actual player-protection practice rather than a document review. Begin it in parallel with the AGLC application, not after it.

5. 05

   File the AGLC registration application

   GLCA s. 49.2

   Apply per site through AGLC, pay the non-refundable application and annual registration fees, and submit to background checks. No registration issues until all federal, provincial and municipal compliance is in place and the fees are paid.

6. 06

   Build to the SRIG and get the data centre approved

   SRIG Parts 4 and 5

   Certify games and RNGs through an AGLC-registered Accredited Testing Facility. Get AGLC approval for your data centres and remote gaming servers, including the data-residency designation and cross-border transfer assessment. Stand up the CVSS remediation SLAs, PAM, quarterly access certification and the geolocation stack, and obtain the SOC 2 Type 1 you need to connect to AGLC systems.

7. 07

   Integrate with centralized self-exclusion

   SRIG 3.5

   Build and prove the API connection to AGLC’s central self-exclusion system, with controls that stop anyone not cleared by it from registering or logging in, marketing suppression on notification, and the wager-refund rule. This is a hard precondition of the AiGC agreement.

8. 08

   Submit the Technology Compliance Confirmation and the CAM

   SRIG 4.13–4.14

   CEO and Chief Compliance Officer sign the Confirmation; attach the vulnerability assessment, the internal and external penetration tests, the cloud attestations and the geolocation validation. Have the Control Activity Matrix independently audited and submit the audit result with it. Both must be done before go-live.

9. 09

   Execute the AiGC operating agreement

   GLCA s. 49.1(1)(b); SRIG 2.3.1

   With registration granted, RG Check held and the self-exclusion integration live, sign with AiGC. Only then may a registered site operate. AiGC tells applicants to expect three to four months across the whole process.

10. 10

    Operate: annual and ongoing obligations

    SRIG 4.13, 4.16, 5.1

    Renew the Technology Compliance Confirmation annually. Re-certify after any regulatory modification, and submit emergency regulatory fixes to an ATF within five business days of release. Penetration test at least annually and after material change. Move to ISO 27001 or SOC 2 Type 2 within two years of market launch. File discrepancy reports within 24 hours.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 13 Oct 2026.