Don't fund sport with gambling money.

March 25, 2026

Hon. Adam van Koeverden, MP
Secretary of State for Sport
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6

Dear Secretary of State van Koeverden:

We write in response to the Final Report of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, and specifically its recommendation #89: The Government of Canada explore and consider additional sources of government revenue (including) tax revenues from sport betting and tax revenues from professional sports.

Like you, in your quotes today in the Globe and Mail, we see the Commission's report as a major watershed moment, setting out a pathway to complete the unfinished and unrealized efforts of previous inquiries and task forces to effect safe, healthy, ethical and accessible sports in Canada. While we have views on other aspects of the report, we will limit our comments in this letter to Recommendation #89.

Although we fully support additional tax revenues for Canadian sport, we strenuously oppose the idea of taxing the sports betting companies for that purpose. Sports betting should be taxed, but the proceeds should be used to fund the treatment of those addicted and otherwise harmed by sports betting and online gambling, the costs of which are estimated to be two or three times even the most conservative estimates of the revenue generated. Such taxes should also fund public education to reduce the harms, and research into the mechanisms of addiction.

A sport-dedicated tax on sports betting would legitimate and normalize sports betting, and therefore further the significant health, economic and social harms and the poisoning of the culture of sports that sports betting creates. Any step that further normalizes sports betting, and incentivizes the sports community to promote sports betting, would add to the harms.

We remind you that sports betting significantly undermines the integrity of sports, as the almost daily arrests of athletes, coaches and referees for competition manipulation now demonstrates. Sports betting has become a safe sport concern as well, as disappointed bettors abuse and threaten athletes who fail to make their intended bets. Although the proponents of sports betting claim that it increases the interest in sports, there is absolutely no evidence that sports betting increases the active, embodied, communal participation called for in the Physical Activity and Sport Act, the Canadian Sport Policy, and other Canadian policies. As Dr. Andrew Pipe said yesterday in the Commission's media conference, sports participation in Canada is declining and a balance between high performance sport and participation urgently needs to be restored.

The World Health Organization, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Mental Health Association, Mental Health Research Canada, Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction and a host of other national and international public bodies have called for an end to the marketing and sponsorship of gambling as a way to reduce the harms.

The health science research is clear — the rapid growth and normalization of gambling we are now experiencing is a public health crisis.

At this time, there is a complete absence of a public health strategy in Canada with respect to online gambling, compared to the well-established public health strategies for alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. A sport-dedicated tax on sports betting would amount to a tacit endorsement of gambling, which can become a harmful addictive behavior, and undermine public health.

The Canadian sports community has experienced the moral dilemmas posed by the woeful inadequacy of funding before. A generation ago, the tobacco industry tempted us (and cultural organizations) with major sponsorship as a strategy of postponing the inevitable public health reckoning with the cancerous effects of smoking, and mystifying the role that sponsorship and marketing played in its normalization. Fortunately, a number of prominent Canadian sports leaders such as Dr. Pipe and Ken Read stood up to oppose tobacco sponsorship. The direct result was the Federal Government Policy on Tobacco Sponsorship of National Sport Organizations. We need the same leadership from prominent sportspersons like you today.

Gambling, like tobacco use, can be addictive, and ‘problem gambling’ has been classified as a non-substance-related addictive disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.

We would support a tax on professional sports in the interests of the Olympic and amateur sports. The Ontario Government did this once to great benefit. It used those taxes to train teachers and coaches, including women sports leaders; build the first Canadian sports training centre, and fund amateur sports organizations.

As you know from our previous correspondence, we believe that Canada should strictly regulate — not join with and legitimate — the exploitative and harmful enterprises of sports betting. It should protect amateur and Olympic sport from them. We therefore urge you to prohibit bets on the Olympic, Paralympic, amateur, school, college and university sports.

In addition, we recommend that the Government of Canada:

• Support the passage of Bill S-211, An act respecting a national framework for sport betting advertising
• During the second stage of the process set out by Bill S-211, namely the development of detailed regulations for sports betting advertising, direct Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Miller to ban ads for gambling, just as Canada bans ads for tobacco and cannabis
• Sign and ratify the Macolin Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions
• Conduct and fund public education about the harms of sports betting
• Establish a duty of care: make gambling companies and sports leagues liable for the full social, economic, and treatment costs of gambling harms
• End the conflicts of interest: stop broadcasters from promoting bets

Thank you very much for your consideration.

We are Olympians, parents and grandparents of Olympians, teachers, journalists, lawyers, health researchers and political activists. While we came together because of the way we saw gambling ads distorting the culture of Canadian sports, we quickly learned about the tremendous health harms caused by sports betting and other forms of gambling.

Robin Campbell, Joel Finlay and Bruce Kidd
Campaign to Ban Gambling Ads

Copies to: Senator Marty Deacon · Hon. Marc Miller, MP · Andrew Brown · Francois Bilodeau · Isobel Mondou · Dr. Andrew Pipe · Kerry Gillespie · Simon Houpt · Donna Spencer · Ashley Burke