Katrina Griffiths
Senior editor
Published on: September 8, 2026
Who regulates online casinos in Alberta: AGLC and AiGC explained
Two organizations sit behind every legal online casino in Alberta, and they do different jobs. Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) is the regulator, while the Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) is the provincial body that legally runs the market those casinos operate inside.
Most players never think about either one until something goes wrong, and that’s exactly when it helps to know which door to knock on.
Why the province needs two bodies
Canada’s Criminal Code doesn’t let a private company run a lottery scheme on its own, and that term covers online casino games and sports betting. Only a province can conduct and manage gambling. So, a province that wants private operators has to put a provincial body at the centre of the market and have the commercial sites operate through it.
Alberta did that with the iGaming Alberta Act, passed in 2025. The Act created the Alberta iGaming Corporation as a Crown agent with a mandate to develop, organize, conduct and manage online gaming on behalf of the province. The regulated market opened on July 13, 2026.
Ontario built its market the same way three years earlier, with iGaming Ontario in the AiGC role and the AGCO as regulator. If you’ve played there, the structure will look familiar. More detail on how Alberta’s law is put together is on our legal framework page.
What does AGLC do?
AGLC is decades older than the AiGC. It has regulated Alberta’s casinos, bingo halls, liquor, and cannabis for years before online gambling was added to the list. Its job is to decide who gets to operate here, and on what terms.
- Registration: Every operator, platform provider and critical gaming systems provider has to be registered. AGLC vets the company, its owners and its key people before any of them can take a bet in Alberta.
- The rulebook: AGLC writes the Standards and Requirements for Internet Gaming, which cover game testing, how player funds are held, responsible gambling tools, data handling and advertising.
- Self-exclusion: AGLC runs the province’s centralized self-exclusion program. You register once and choose your term and scope: online sites, land-based venues, or both.
- Enforcement: When a site breaks the rules, AGLC can issue warnings, suspend a registration or hand down monetary penalties.
AGLC also runs Play Alberta, the government’s own gambling site, so it regulates operators that compete with a platform it owns. That dual role was one of the criticisms raised while the legislation went through the legislature, and it’s worth knowing about even though it doesn’t change the standards any site has to meet.
What does AiGC do?
The Alberta iGaming Corporation is the commercial side. Once AGLC has registered an operator, that operator has to sign a commercial agreement with AiGC before it can go live. The agreement is what makes the site’s games legal in Alberta: technically, the province conducts and manages the gambling, and the operator delivers it.
AiGC’s remit covers the commercial agreements themselves, anti-money laundering obligations, and the financials and income reporting that flow back to the province. It doesn’t write the player-facing rules, and it isn’t where you take a dispute.
A legal Alberta casino has cleared two separate gates. It requires AGLC registration, then an AiGC agreement. A site missing either one isn’t operating legally here, no matter what its homepage says.
What this actually means when you sign up
The two-body structure explains why a registered Alberta site behaves the way it does and the rules it follows.
- You must be 18. Alberta’s minimum age for online gambling is 18, not 19. That differs from several other provinces.
- ID verification is mandatory. A site will ask for identity documents before your first withdrawal. This is usually a government ID, proof of address, and proof of payment method.
- The games are tested. Random number generators and return-to-player (RTP) figures are independently certified against AGLC’s standards rather than taken on the operator’s word.
- Limit tools are available. Deposit limits, time limits and account closure are part of mandatory responsible gambling tools, not features an operator chooses to offer.
- One self-exclusion covers the market. Because the program offered through the AGLC (https://www.selfexclusion.ca/) is centralized, a single registration applies across every registered site instead of forcing you to exclude yourself one operator at a time.
Our player protections page goes through each of those in more depth.
How to check a site is registered
AGLC publishes the full list of gaming registrants, and it’s searchable. Filter the registration class to iGaming, and you’ll see the operators, platform providers and systems providers cleared to work in the province.
If a site isn’t on that list, it’s offshore and operating in a grey market. Offshore sites will still accept Alberta players, and some have been doing it for years, but the protections above don’t travel with you. No guaranteed certified games, no centralized self-exclusion, no Alberta complaints route, and no regulator with the power to fine anyone if your withdrawal never arrives. We cover the trade-off in more detail on our safe online casinos page.
When something goes wrong
- Read the terms, then use the operator’s complaints process. Most disputes come down to a term the player didn’t know was there. The site has up to 90 days to give you a decision.
- Escalate to AGLC if you think the rules were broken. That covers responsible gambling failures, advertising breaches and possible illegal activity. AGLC takes complaints through a form and will want the site’s name, your player ID and the reference number from your original complaint.
AGLC is blunt about the limits of step two, and you should be clear on it before you file: a complaint to AGLC won’t resolve your dispute, and AGLC cannot make a gaming site give you your money back. It can investigate and penalize the operator if it finds a breach. Complex cases can run six months or more. The disputes page sets out the process.
So, keep records including screenshots of the term you’re disputing, the date you filed with the operator, and the reference number they gave you.
Conclusion
AGLC decides who can operate and what they have to do. AiGC signs the agreement that makes the games legal and handles the money side. You’ll deal with AGLC and almost never with AiGC.
Before you deposit anywhere, check the operator against the AGLC register, set your deposit limit while you’re still in the sign-up flow rather than after a bad night, and keep the reference number from any complaint you file. For background on how the private market got here, see our post on what changed when Alberta opened its casino market.
You must be 18 or older to gamble online in Alberta. If gambling is causing problems for you or someone you know, the Alberta Health Services Addiction Helpline is free and confidential at 1-866-332-2322, and GameSense has tools and information on keeping play in check.
