As Alberta continues to explore the best way to introduce a regulated, commercial online gambling market, the University of Alberta has launched a new micro-credential course aimed at educating people on the evolving gaming industry.

The university’s Gambling and Gaming Microcredential is a four-day intensive course offered online and on campus. It was created by political science professor Dr. Fiona Nicoll based on research she conducted with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute (AGRI).

The course is built on exclusive video interviews detailing the findings of the AGRI National Project (ANP), as well as with gaming and gambling experts from across Canada and the world.

The aim is to provide a full understanding of the modern-day gambling environment, as well as what iGaming regulation could mean for Alberta. Questions the course looks to answer include:

• What challenges are posed by the creation of new markets for online sports gambling, including younger and more diverse communities of sports fans?
• What kinds of gambling are being offered by grey-market sites and how are cryptocurrencies involved?
• What are the comparative advantages of state-run and licencing systems for delivering safer and sustainable gambling to Albertans?
• What are some of the barriers to prevention and treatment of gambling harms?
• How useful is financial literacy in creating more beneficial experiences for gamblers in casinos and online?
• What are some of the benefits and limitations of new online tools for prevention, detection and referral for people gambling in risky ways?

“It’s aiming to prepare professionals who are in different fields, as well as graduate students, to understand and respond to this new gambling environment that’s just entered our province,” Dr. Nicoll told the Edmonton Journal. “Because the space has grown, more people are potentially engaged. Whether that’s in the addiction and treatment spaces or whether that’s in the regulation spaces. Whether that’s people who work with schoolchildren in K to 12 (particularly the senior years) or even journalists.

“I saw the need to bring this to as many people as possible because the transformations that are coming are unprecedented in Canada. And in this province, the shift from brick-and-mortar casinos to an iGaming model, where you can gamble at any time, anywhere, on your device with a good internet connection, is a radical shift, partly because it takes regulation out of the hands of the establishments. It downloads that responsibility onto every player to track their consumption… it becomes increasingly difficult compared to the old brick-and-mortar days or when you would go to Vegas to see where the lines between gambling and investment and video games are.

Play Alberta goes newly mobile as Alberta regulatory talks continue

While Alberta Minister Dale Nally and other stakeholders have pumped the brakes on their planned timeline for launching a commercial iGaming market, the plan remains firmly in place. Nally’s office told Canadian Gaming Business a few weeks ago that the hope is for the province to open its online gaming doors in 2025.

Speaking at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas the following week, Nally said that he was “pleasantly surprised” by stakeholders’ commitment to launching a market in a responsible way, with player protection and robust regulation top of mind. He also said that while First Nations want to have a role in an iGaming market, “they’re not sure what it looks like right now.”

“If I’m back here a year from now… we’ll be talking about an open and free market in Alberta, and I’m hoping that the feedback that I get is, ‘Thank you for making our entry into your market seamless and easy,'” Nally told attendees at G2E.

In the meantime, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) continues to bolster its digital presence. The crown corporation, whose Play Alberta platform is the only regulated gaming platform in the province until such time as a commercial market opens, launched the first very Play Alberta app last month, making its sports betting offerings increasingly accessible.