Changes to Charitable Gaming model to promote equity for Charitable Organizations

Alberta’s 19 casinos are divided into ten regions for the purposes of charitable gaming. Organizations across the province are assigned to a casino in the closest proximity to their location. Because charitable organizations are not distributed equally across the province, some regions host many more charitable organizations than others. For charitable organizations, this results in unequal wait times between casino events across different regions. As charitable organizations receive revenue only when they “work” a casino, an inequity exists in how often they have this revenue-generating opportunity across the province.  

 Furthermore, Alberta’s gaming landscape has evolved significantly since the charitable gaming review was conducted.  In 2020, AGLC launched Play Alberta, the province’s regulated online gaming platform.  Play Alberta generated approximately $37 million in revenue during its first year of operations and has since grown substantially.  While gaming revenues and opportunities have expanded through new platforms, the charitable gaming model and the inequities experienced by charitable organizations across casino regions have remained largely unchanged.  This demonstrates the need for a modernized charitable gaming framework that reflects the current gaming environment and ensures equitable opportunities for charitable organizations throughout Alberta.  

 In 2019, AGLC initiated a comprehensive review of Alberta’s charitable gaming model, followed by stakeholder engagement in 2021, involving charitable organizations, casino operators, and sector representatives.  Following the engagement, AGLC released a “What We Heard” report summarizing the feedback received and indicating that recommendations would be developed and released in the next phase of the review.  While the “What We Heard” report identified concerns regarding casino wait times, regional funding disparities, and opportunities to modernize the charitable gaming model, final recommendations have not been publicly released.  As a result, charitable organizations and municipal stakeholders remain without clarity on how the GOA and AGLC intend to address the inequities identified through the review process. 

  According to the AGLC website, the following table outlines the wait times and revenues for each casino region in 2024. 

While the waiting period is a critical aspect of equity in the casino gaming system, it tells only part of the story. The per-event revenue generated varies widely among regions as well. Some casinos are more popular than others, and this is reflected in the amount of money raised at casino events across regions. Casinos in Edmonton and Calgary generate significantly more revenue per event than those elsewhere in the province.  

Both the waiting period and the per-event proceeds indicate how casino proceeds vary by region. However, to understand the full scope of how regions compare to one another, these measures must be combined. To do this, the AGLC uses “annualized proceeds,” which are a calculation of the estimated proceeds per year that an organization in a region would receive. This measure is effective as it combines the waiting period and the per-event proceeds into a single factor. It is important to note that annualized proceeds are a hypothetical measure. It looks at how much money a charity would receive in a single year within its region if proceeds were distributed in this manner. It is also important to note that proceeds are not actually distributed in this way. In reality, organizations receive the average per-event proceeds from the quarter in which they volunteered at a casino event. Using annualized proceeds, there is a significant gap between the high-revenue Edmonton and Calgary regions and the other regions in the province. 

RMA and other stakeholders have previously proposed changes to the charitable gaming model to reduce the impact of these regional differences and support charitable organizations across the province receiving a more similar level of financial benefit for the same amount of volunteer work. To this point, the GOA has not considered changes to the current boundaries and revenue distribution across the province.  

Charitable organizations within Northern Sunrise County and surrounding rural communities experience significantly longer wait times and lower annualized returns than organizations located in Alberta’s major urban centres.  These inequities reduce the ability of local organizations to consistently fund community initiatives that benefit rural residents. The current charitable gaming model places rural organizations at a disadvantage, despite their providing the same level of volunteer commitment required to participate in casino events.

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