Global coalition calls on the IOC and IPC to ban sports-betting sponsorship and marketing.

Ban Ads for Gambling — As the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina approaches, a coalition of NGOs from around the globe has written the International Olympic and International Paralympic Committees calling upon them to ban sports betting sponsorship and marketing in the interests of public health and safety. We are deeply concerned about the growing public health crisis fueled by aggressive advertising of online gambling and predatory gambling practices.

Copies of those letters are below: read the letter to the IOC and the letter to the IPC.

'While the IOC stands squarely against match fixing and competition manipulation, it allows gambling ads on Olympic programming', says Bruce Kidd, the former Canadian Olympian who chairs the Canadian NGO, Ban Ads for Gambling. 'That normalizes the harms of sports betting and completely contradicts the IOC's messaging about the importance of health and physical activity.'

'Sports betting addicts and is entirely passive,' Kidd says. 'There is absolutely no evidence that sports betting increases the realization of Olympic values, including healthy active participation in sports.'

The coalition urges the IOC to endorse the public health recommendations of its partner organization, the World Health Organization. Those can be found at: Gambling.

The signatories to the letters are:

• Stop Predatory Gambling (USA)
• Coalition to End Gambling Ads (UK)
• Gambling with Lives (UK)
• Alliance for Gambling Reform (Australia)
• Humans of Sport (Worldwide)
• Society Concerned about Gambling Addiction (Japan)
• NPO National Association of Family of Gambling Addiction (Japan)
• Ban Ads for Gambling (Canada)