© Provided by Calgary Herald A screencap of the PlayAlberta website.
The province’s gaming authority had the right to set up an online gambling site, Alberta’s top court ruled Friday in upholding a lower court decision.
A three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel dismissed a challenge by Tsuu T’ina Gaming and others to the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s decision to create PlayAlberta in 2020.
The appellants had argued Justice Robert Armstrong erred in his Feb. 24, 2022, decision upholding the commission’s approval of the online gambling site.
Among the arguments raised by the gambling entities on the Tsuut’ina Nation on Calgary’s southwest edge, was that Armstrong erred in finding the commission had the statutory authority under the gaming act to operate an online casino accessible by desktop and mobile devices throughout the province.
The appeal judges noted that the Criminal Code says all lotteries and games of chance are illegal, but sets out exceptions which include provincial governments conducting and managing authorized lottery schemes.
“Importantly, within (the Criminal Code) is a distinction between a provincial government, which may operate and manage a provincially authorized lottery scheme, and others, who require provincial approval and licencing,” they said.
The Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act says t he commission “may conduct and manage provincial lotteries on behalf of the Government of Alberta,” the appeal judges noted in their written ruling.
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“In summary, a province is entitled to conduct and manage a provincially authorized lottery scheme. Such a scheme is authorized in Alberta as a ‘provincial lottery,’” they said.
“This is different than a lottery scheme for which a non-governmental entity is authorized by a gaming licence to operate a ‘gaming activity’ on licenced premises, or licenced for on-site VLTs in authorized establishments. The purpose of the provincial government’s ‘provincial lottery’ is to raise funds for general revenue.”
The Tsuut’ina Nation and Stoney Nakoda First Nation launched a challenge of PlayAlberta in April 2021, arguing it constituted an “unauthorized entry” into Alberta’s casino and gaming market by the regulator and provincial government.
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts