The harm never stops at one person.
It has been estimated that for every person experiencing gambling problems, another 5 to 10 people are negatively affected — with harms to mental health and financial security especially common.
Gambling harm is a household condition.
A bet is placed by one person. The consequences are absorbed by a partner, a parent, a sibling, a child, a roommate, a coworker — people who never gambled at all, and who have no say in when it stops.
The costs land at home first.
Gambling harm rarely arrives as a single crisis. It accumulates — quietly, then all at once.
Gambling can drive poverty by diverting household spending away from essential goods and services. The harms extend well past the gambler to relationship breakdown, family violence, financial distress, stigma, income-generating crimes, and the neglect of children.1
The ads follow the family into the living room.
You can decide not to gamble. You cannot decide not to see the marketing. Sports-betting advertising arrives during the games families watch together, in the podcasts on the drive to practice, in the feeds on every phone in the house. For a household already living with a gambling problem, that is not background noise — it is a constant, unavoidable relapse cue aimed squarely at the person trying to stop.
It reaches the youngest members of the household too. Underage gambling in Canada can begin as young as nine or ten years old4, and children absorb betting language and betting brands long before they can legally place a wager. Parents are left to counter a marketing budget they cannot match, in their own home, on their own screens.
This is why the campaign focuses on advertising rather than on gambling itself. Families cannot opt out of an ad-saturated environment — but Parliament can change that environment. Bill S‑211 would establish Canada’s first national framework on sports-betting advertising.
Support exists for families, not just gamblers.
If someone you love is gambling, you are not the only person in Canada living this, and help is not reserved for the person placing the bets. Free, confidential support is available in every province and territory — including Gam-Anon, which exists specifically for the family and friends of people with gambling problems.
You do not have to wait for the gambler to be ready. You can get support for yourself now.
Keep reading
Read the full case against gambling advertising, see the harm to young people, browse the research and reports, or write to your MP.
Sources
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Gambling Policy Framework (March 2024), p. 6, citing Wardle H, Reith G, Langham E, Rogers RD, “Gambling and public health: we need policy action to prevent harm,” BMJ 2019;365:l1807.
- Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), Greo Evidence Insights & Mental Health Research Canada, Online Gambling Among Young Canadian Adults: A Call to Action (2025).
- Leger survey for CPA Canada, 2026 Gambling Study (June 2026).
- Canadian Paediatric Society, “Teen gambling.”
It doesn’t start with a bet.
It starts with an ad.
Tell your MP to pass Bill S‑211 — it takes a minute.