New Brunswick Tables Live Casino Bill That Keeps Online Gaming in Public Hands

New Brunswick wants the power to regulate live dealer casino games online, but its bill gives that power only to a government agency, which in practice means the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. The private-operator market the province says it is studying is not in the text.

• New Brunswick's Finance and Treasury Board Minister René Legacy introduced Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Gaming Control Act, on 27 October, and second reading debate began and was adjourned on 28 October
• The bill defines a live casino lottery scheme as an online casino game "hosted, facilitated or presented by a live person", and an online casino scheme as one conducted and managed by the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation
• Only a body corporate set up under an interprovincial lottery agreement, designated as a provincial government agency with cabinet approval, could operate the games, a structure that fits Atlantic Lottery
• The bill contains no licensing or registration route for private operators, live dealer studios or suppliers, and the rules for live casino are to follow in regulations
• The province has also said it is studying private online operators, the route Alberta took this year, but has set no timeline and published no consultation

New Brunswick Gives Itself the Power to Regulate Live Dealer Games

Legacy, the Liberal member for Bathurst, sponsors the bill. According to the text as tabled, it adds two definitions to the Gaming Control Act. An "online casino lottery scheme" is "a lottery scheme conducted and managed by the Corporation through an online platform and involving casino-style games". A "live casino lottery scheme" is "an online casino lottery scheme in which casino-style games are hosted, facilitated or presented by a live person."

The operative change is a new power for the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation (NBLGC). With the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, it may enter into an agreement with a body corporate incorporated under an interprovincial lottery agreement, designating that body as an agency of the provincial government "to operate in the Province an online casino lottery scheme, including a live casino lottery scheme". Cabinet's regulation-making power is widened to cover lottery schemes conducted and managed by the corporation and operated by another government agency. It also lets cabinet set licence fees by regulation, and takes effect on dates fixed by proclamation.

Announcing the bill, Legacy said: "Modernizing the Gaming Control Act is about keeping up with how gaming is changing." Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin was reported as saying the change "will provide a safer alternative to unregulated offerings in the province." According to reports of the government's announcement, the province credits the live casino concept to Atlantic Lottery and says the detailed regulations will come later.

A Separate Review of Private Operators Has No Timetable

The bill lands a week after the government confirmed it is looking at private online operators. In a statement to Brunswick News, as reported by trade outlets, Legacy said: "Online gaming is continuously evolving and the number of options, regulated and unregulated, continues to grow." No timeline, preferred model or consultation paper has been published.

The Bill Strengthens the Incumbent Before Any Opening

Nothing in Bill 8 admits a private operator. The only body that can run live casino is a government agency created under an interprovincial agreement, and Atlantic Lottery is the body the four Atlantic provinces own. A government expecting to license private casinos soon would arguably have less need for a statute built around its own lottery operator, and the sequence suggests that competition, if it comes, will meet a public operator that may by then offer live dealer tables.

Ontario and Alberta Opened Their Markets While New Brunswick Starts With Content

Ontario opened its online market to private operators in April 2022, and Alberta's regulated market opened on 13 July 2026. Ontario's model is also in front of the courts, with the Supreme Court of Canada reserving judgment on its plan to pool players internationally. New Brunswick's bill is a narrower step: content parity for the Crown before market structure is decided.

Compliance Will Weigh on Whoever Runs the Tables

Live casino adds studio supply chains to a system whose Crown corporation has had a difficult year. Canada's financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC, fined NBLGC C$399,712.50, approximately $290,000, for failing to file three suspicious transaction reports. The bill does not say how studios or game suppliers will be approved, and the regulations that would answer that have not been published. Studio suppliers such as Evolution will look to those regulations for where tables may be hosted.

New Brunswick is modernising its law for a product its Crown operator wants, not opening its market. The real decision on private operators is still to come, and so far it has only a minister's statement behind it.