St. Albert welcomes changes to charitable gaming model

St. Albert city council said it is grateful that the provincial government has addressed part of a resolution about Alberta's charitable gaming model passed at the Alberta Municipalities convention in September. Starting in 2027 under a revised charitable gaming model, charities from outside of Edmonton and Calgary will begin to receive a $14-million share of the proceeds generated by online gaming in Alberta. It's an attempt to help rural charities earn a comparable amount to those in the province's two largest cities, said Dale Nally, MLA for Morinville-St. Albert and the minister responsible for Service Alberta and red tape reduction. "We have a charitable casino model in this province that I think is a jewel in the crown across the country," Nally told The Macleod Gazette. "But there was really one big flaw with it. That flaw was that there wasn't parity between urban and rural Alberta."

That quest for charity parity could explain, perhaps, why one of Camrose's casinos was moved to Edmonton while keeping its proceeds in the rural pool. The ABMunis resolution said casino revenues are not distributed equally, and the frequency of revenue-generating opportunities varies greatly depending on the region. For example, based on figures from 2024, charities in the Camrose casino region typically had to wait about 40 months for their turn to host casino fundraising events, with an annualized return below $6,000, whereas charities in Edmonton only had to wait about 22 months, with a return of over $40,000. St. Albert's wait was 31 months, with the annualized return just over $7,000. When the Camrose casino was originally applying to move to Edmonton in 2024, the proponents said the move meant Edmonton urban charities would see a 5% decrease in charity pool payments, while rural charities would see an increase of more than 50%.

Nally acknowledged that finding a balance for rural and urban charities is difficult. "Any solution you can come up with is going to penalize someone," he said. "We wanted to find a win-win solution … so now we have this new and incremental revenue from iGaming." St. Albert Mayor Scott Olivieri said the new approach, announced at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta convention in Edmonton, "treats charities in St. Albert and other smaller communities across the province much more equitably, and in a way that does not impact the bottom line of charities in Edmonton and Calgary." The introduction of online gambling also has a downside, however, with increased addiction expected.