New Brunswick Considers Ending Atlantic Lottery's Online Gambling Monopoly
The province is studying whether to license private operators for online gambling, a move that would strip Atlantic Lottery of its exclusive hold on the market.
New Brunswick's government has confirmed it is examining whether to open its online gambling market to private operators, a change that would end Atlantic Lottery's monopoly in the province.
Finance Minister René Legacy told Brunswick News that officials are looking at options for regulating private online operators, citing the continued growth of both regulated and unregulated gambling activity. No timeline has been set for the review, according to Legal Sports Report.
Atlantic Lottery is a Crown corporation jointly owned by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, and it currently runs the only legal online gambling offering in those four provinces.
A spokesperson for New Brunswick's Finance and Treasury Board, David Kelly, said the province is tracking how other jurisdictions have handled similar shifts in order to keep gambling in New Brunswick safe, responsible and properly regulated.
Two other Canadian provinces have already gone this route. Ontario opened its online casino and sports betting market to competing operators in 2022, and Alberta followed in July, becoming the second province to allow licensed private companies alongside its existing public offering.
Part of the pressure on New Brunswick comes from advertising. Operators licensed only in Ontario and Alberta still air national commercials that reach New Brunswick households, even though those companies cannot legally take bets from residents there. Consumers who search for those brands are often routed instead to the same operators' international betting sites.
Canada's Criminal Code does not penalise residents for placing bets on offshore platforms, which leaves that traffic effectively unchecked. Atlantic Lottery estimates that more than C$250 million leaves Atlantic Canada every year through such sites.
New Brunswick's own budget figures show the strain: government lottery revenue has fallen by C$8 million compared with two years ago.
Atlantic Lottery spokesperson Greg Weston said unregulated operators are pulling substantial gambling revenue out of the region without contributing to provincial coffers or meeting the standards his organisation must follow.
Michael Naraine, who teaches sport management at Brock University and sits on San Diego State University's Institute on Sports Wagering and Gaming as its first Canadian member, was blunt about Ontario's model, describing it to Legal Sports Report as a free-for-all.
Ontario charges operators an annual fee of C$100,000, sets no limit on how many can enter the market, and takes 20% of their gaming revenue. Naraine argued Alberta has improved on that approach by channelling dedicated funding toward research, education and addiction and mental health support.
He pointed to New York's sports betting framework as a tighter alternative, one that restricts mobile wagering to a limited roster of operators, charges a $25 million licensing fee and applies a 51% tax rate on revenue.
Those contrasting models give New Brunswick a range of templates to weigh as it decides how far to open its market, and how much regulatory control to retain over any private operators it eventually licenses.