Sometimes politicians admit more than they mean to.
This past July, the Alberta minister in charge of gambling in the province, Dale Nally, made a curious statement while unveiling the province’s jump into online gambling. He expressed his wish that if it were at all possible, gambling would be rare.
“If you don’t gamble today, don’t start…. If there was a big red button that I could push that would stop online gambling, I’d push that button, but that button doesn’t exist.”
It’s an admission – without putting it in quite these words – that there is something horrible going on in gambling that would be best to avoid. If so, why is the Alberta government expanding its presence in the gambling industry?
“Seventy per cent of online gambling that was happening in the province was occurring in the black market and there’s no player safety controls…. They have no player responsibility guardrails, and so we wanted to put in a legal, regulated framework that put player safety first.”
Alberta iGaming Corporation (AiGC) CEO Dan Keene echoed Nally:
“Our role at AIGC is not to grow online gaming. It is to channelize the illegal market that exists today into a regulated and legal space.
So they want it to be safe, legal, and rare.
But, why rare? They can’t really get into it, because if the government ever made the case for how horrible gambling is, it would undermine their involvement. Imagine if they just said plainly that gambling:
- is a trick, promising riches even as it stacks the deck against bettors
- is a tax on the stupid, with government revenue coming from those who may be least able to afford it (Prov. 12:11)
- as an industry produces no new wealth, simply shifting money around
- promotes covetousness, and dreams of a lifestyle that harms even the winners (Prov. 13:11)
- absolutely destroys a percentage of those who do it (1 Tim. 6:9-10)
And this is where we see the limits of common-sense conservatism, or any sort of godless government – without God’s Word they have no firm moral foundation, so they shift. Contrary to what AiGC CEO Dan Keene said, the Alberta government isn’t limiting itself to putting up guardrails around gambling. Last month I went to an Edmonton Elks football game, and every fan contest – you know the sort, during a break in the action three guys get tied into cardboard firetrucks and race down the field for a prize – was sponsored by Play Alberta, another government gambling venture. A dozen or more times during the game attendees were told about how great gambling is. That’s not keeping it rare. That’s a pitch. That’s promotion. That’s the government pushing people down a path that Minister Dale Nally admitted it would be better that no one went down.
Gambling is a sin that hurts people, and some grievously. Whether the government can shut it down or not, they shouldn’t want any part of promoting it and profiting from it. God put governments in place to protect and not victimize their citizens (Ps. 72:4) and that remains true no matter what percentage of the take a government might get.
Picture is a screenshot from Alberta iGaming Corp July 13, 2026 press release.