Alberta is providing $2.4 million to Brick House Recovery Centre to expand treatment and recovery programs for people experiencing problem gambling, making the funding available before the province collects its planned share of revenue from regulated online gambling operators. The announcement came Thursday, after Alberta launched its regulated iGaming market in mid-July and pledged that one per cent of revenues would be reserved for addiction treatment.

Brick House has locations in Edmonton and Calgary and offers virtual support to clients across Alberta. The grant is intended to enhance its treatment and recovery programs for problem gamblers. The announcement did not specify a timeline for the money to be distributed or the number of people the expanded services would reach.

Dr. Lovneet Hayer, co-founder of the Brick House Recovery Centre, said in a news release: “We are committed to helping individuals and families affected by gambling addiction access high-quality, recovery-focused care. Our goal is to offer hope, practical support and a path toward lasting recovery.”

Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally described the grant as an advance on funding expected to come from gaming companies doing business in the province. Operators are to pay for treatment through the one-per-cent allocation, but Nally said Alberta did not want people seeking help to wait while that revenue was collected.

“It’s the first in a series of stages addressing it (problem gambling), for sure,” Nally said. “But to be clear, this is a government that is standing up a $2.4 million grant just to get this program rolling. We have said from day one that operators will pay for treatment in this province, that anybody who struggles with problematic gambling behaviours will get help, and it’ll be paid for by the operators.”

“What we didn’t want to do was to make Albertans wait, you know, while we collected that one per cent. So that’s why we’re standing up the grant now,” he said. The funding is an initial measure in the province’s stated approach to ensuring treatment is available while the regulated market and its revenue stream develop.

Alberta expects to earn $76 million from iGaming this year. The province’s 20-per-cent share represents a portion of all revenue generated by the sites legally regulated in Alberta. The Edmonton Journal report said the Alberta iGaming Corporation listed 31 sites as legally open for business in the province at the time of publication. The report also noted that the expected payments had not yet arrived.

Nally has said Alberta joined Ontario as the only Canadian jurisdictions to legalize the iGaming market because millions of dollars were already being spent each year on offshore gambling sites. Before legalization, gaming company Betway reported an eight-per-cent rise in Alberta revenue over the previous year during an earnings call. Betway has been approved to launch in Alberta but had not yet done so at the time of the report.

The province’s stated rationale was to regulate and tax a market that already existed, rather than create a new one. Legalization brings activity that had taken place through offshore sites into a regulated system, where Alberta can collect revenue and require operators to contribute to treatment.

Nally said Alberta is currently satisfied with the one-per-cent figure, while leaving it open to review. He pointed to population growth and rising gaming revenues in Ontario as factors relevant to whether the treatment allocation will be sufficient. Ontario’s gaming revenues have far exceeded estimates, and the report said people there are gambling more than $9 billion per month this year.

“We’re a growing population, and when we look at land-based casinos, we see them growing at a couple of per cent a year,” Nally said. “So we’ll see these revenues growing every year. We believe that the one per cent is going to be enough so that the operators will be paying for all the intensive outpatient-based treatment that’s required.”

He said the province would provide treatment for people affected by gambling, and would increase the allocation if needed. “But for those who struggle with problematic gambling behaviours, this ruins lives. And so there’s no light between them and us when it comes to providing treatment for anybody that is struggling, and if we have to raise the one per cent, we’re prepared to do that.”

The province urges anyone with a gambling issue to call the 211 helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Edmonton Journal report was by ssandor@postmedia.com and included links to related coverage on Alberta’s iGaming market and an offshore casino’s deepfake advertisement targeting Alphonso Davies’s family. It also asked readers to bookmark EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com, sign up for newsletters or subscribe for unlimited access to the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites.

Based on reporting by Edmonton Journal.