The objections — answered.

No. S‑211 doesn't ban betting or ads outright — it directs the federal government to develop a national framework that can limit how much sports betting is advertised, where, and whether celebrities and athletes can promote it. It also sets national standards for addiction prevention and support.

Bill sponsor Sen. Marty Deacon has been candid that a full advertising ban would raise Charter questions. S‑211 is the realistic, practical step on the table right now. The Campaign to Ban Ads for Gambling supports it as a first step, and will keep advocating for a complete ban on all gambling advertising after it passes.

The ban that worked for tobacco — and the restrictions Canada later applied to cannabis — did not destroy media or entertainment. They redirected the revenue. Other categories filled the gap.

Meanwhile, the cost of not acting is real and measurable: gambling-harm helpline demand has surged since legalization, and 9% of Canadians are now classified as high-risk problem gamblers¹.

Yes, and others are moving in that direction. In June 2023, an Australian parliamentary committee recommended a phased ban on gambling advertising, with all gambling ads off screens within three years. The recommendations include banning all social-media and online gambling advertising, eliminating broadcast advertising around sports, and removing all gambling advertising from broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Australia has since imposed some restrictions, though far short of those recommendations — while Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy have banned most gambling advertising outright.

The United Kingdom and several European countries have introduced varying restrictions. In the United States, rules vary state by state; the SAFE Bet Act, introduced in late 2024, would establish federal standards but has not advanced.

See the background for more.

No. Bill S‑211 doesn't stop anyone from betting. It targets the constant marketing that normalizes high-risk gambling — particularly to children and people in recovery, who cannot meaningfully consent to constant exposure.

Canada limits advertising for tobacco, prescription drugs, and cannabis to protect public health while still allowing adults to choose. Gambling advertising would be treated the same way.

The clearest Canadian precedent is tobacco: after 1988's Tobacco Products Control Act, daily smoking rates dropped substantially over the decades that followed. Advertising restrictions were one part of a multi-pronged public-health strategy.

Conversely, the industry's preferred alternative — "responsible gambling" warnings, which tell you to be careful but still bet — does not work. In fact, "responsible gambling" is a strategy invented by the British betting industry a generation ago to sanitize a seedy, harmful industry and normalize betting — and it was imported wholesale when betting was legalized in Canada in 2021. A 2025 Canadian Medical Association Journal systematic review of 166 studies² found such messaging has no measurable effect on reducing harm.

Bill S‑211 is specifically focused on sports-betting advertising. Provincial lotteries and charitable gaming are governed by other frameworks and are not the subject of this bill.

The bill requires the Minister of Canadian Heritage to develop the framework, and directs the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review its broadcasting policies for harm reduction. National standards, applied across provinces and online, are the only enforceable approach — most sports-betting ads cross provincial borders.

Federal action comes first. Advertising crosses provincial borders on TV, radio, and online — most sports-betting ads originate in Ontario, but reach every other province and territory — and only a national framework like S‑211 can set consistent, enforceable standards.

But the provinces have real power too. As the bodies that license online gambling platforms — Ontario and, now, Alberta — they can impose advertising restrictions as a condition of the licences they grant. As a Canada-wide campaign, we believe every province and territory that licenses private operators should ban gambling advertising. We are urging provincial governments to use that power, and Ontario's Bill 107 (voted down by the Ford Government despite support from all three opposition parties) shows the pressure is building there as well.

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