The University of Alberta has introduced a first-of-its-kind class to educate students and professionals on the complex dynamics of modern gambling. With Alberta close to the launch of a regulated online gambling marketplace, the University of Alberta’s Gambling and Gaming Micro-credential Course developed by political science professor Dr. Fiona Nicoll offers a quite timely exploration into shifting dynamics within gaming.
This four-day intensive online and on-campus course covers rapid changes in gambling brought on by digitalization, online sports betting, and the role of regulation. Anchored in ground-level research with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, AGRI, the course delivers a holistic overview of the latest gambling trends, challenges, and regulatory imperatives.
As a result, students will receive a set of unique video interviews with authorities from the national and international spheres in the area of video gaming. With appropriate websites, including theonlinecasinos.ca, they will be witness to how it is fast changing on the internet.
Key Topics and Learning Objectives
It follows an in-depth approach to most topics to provide learners with profound knowledge of the existing gambling environment and, specifically, the gaming market that is foreseen for Alberta. There are some questions and issues the course addresses. Online gambling is far more accessible to younger audiences than in-house gambling, including various sports fans.
This course covers unique challenges in serving this demographic responsibly. A section of the class was devoted to a look at the activities of the grey market sites operating without strict regulations and an overview of the place of cryptocurrencies within online gambling.
The pros and cons of state-run gambling versus licensing is an important aspect of the study. The course would appraise which model better serves the cause of safer and more sustainable gambling for Albertans. One of the critical issues in gambling is the prevention of harm. Students learn about the barriers to effective prevention and treatment. There is a discussion on the best practices to minimize problem gambling behaviors.
Preparing Professionals to Meet the Future Challenges of Gambling
Dr. Nicoll designed the course for a broad audience, including professionals from all walks of life, graduate students, and others who may be impacted by the evolving gambling landscape. Target groups include professionals in addiction treatment and regulation, K-12 education, and journalism. It gives the student a suite of tools to directly address gambling problems across a wide range of activities through work in regulating gambling with at-risk populations and reporting on the industry.
In an interview, Dr. Nicoll said, “It’s aiming to prepare professionals in different fields to understand and respond to this new gambling environment. The transformations coming are unprecedented in Canada. The shift from brick-and-mortar casinos to iGaming, where people can gamble anytime and anywhere, requires new understandings of accountability, responsibility, and regulation.”
The latter represents a significant divergence from the old casino model, whereby, within its walls, some sense of regulation responsibility was straightforward. Now, with iGaming, much of the responsibility is left to an individual user, and self-regulation is far more difficult than it once was.
Course Components and Resources
The following exclusive resources are included in the Gambling and Gaming Micro-credential Course to improve the learning experience. Students delve into the findings of the AGRI National Project- a comprehensive multi-year inquiry into the gambling environment in Canada. One of the key components of this course is a set of exclusive video interviews with internationally recognized experts in gaming.
This exposure offers immense learning opportunities from practice, regulatory challenges, and evolving market dynamics. The e-learning and face-to-face sessions will be specially designed to be interactive. Students will have the opportunity to discuss and present case studies and exercises that outline how the subject applies to or impacts the real world.
Alberta’s Regulatory Developments: A New Era for iGaming
This course could not be more timely as the Alberta government prepares to launch a commercial iGaming market. “We believe we can get a well-regulated market up and running by 2025,” Dale Nally, Alberta’s Minister of Gaming, said in an interview. In comments at the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nally emphasized that launching iGaming with strong protections for players (with clear regulatory guidelines for licensees) is key.
In the meantime, Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis have been acting to increase their options online. The AGLC released the Play Alberta app last year to offer regulated sports wagering and casino games. It is done to provide access to gambling under controlled conditions with ease. This app is supposed to be the only regulated platform in Alberta until a more comprehensive market opening allows other operators to join.
