The harm is devastating.
Gambling ads are everywhere — on TV, in sports arenas, online, in social media, even on public transit. They are designed to make betting normal, harmless and exciting. But these ads target the young and vulnerable, fuelling a public-health and addiction crisis we cannot ignore. They're also poisoning the culture of sport.
The numbers behind the crisis.
Problem gambling rarely stops at one person. Estimates suggest that at least six other people, on average,1 are negatively affected by one person experiencing problematic gambling.
Sources
- The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling, p. e972, citing Goodwin BC, Browne M, Rockloff M, Rose J, “A typical problem gambler affects six others,” International Gambling Studies 2017;17:276–89.
- 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).
Underage gambling can start at 9 or 10 years old.
Sports-betting ads run during games kids watch, on phones kids hold, in feeds kids scroll. They normalize a behaviour that is anything but harmless.
A primary responsibility of government is to protect children and young people — which is why advertising for tobacco and cannabis is restricted in Canada, and why sports-betting advertising should be too.
Sports betting is also the industry's gateway. The ads hook people — especially young men — on betting platforms, and once they have signed up, operators steer them toward their far more addictive online casino games.
Sources
- 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).
- Canadian Paediatric Society, “Teen gambling.”
Gambling ads are designed to hook people.
Gambling addiction is recognized as a non-substance-related addictive disorder. Like drugs and alcohol, gambling activates the brain's dopamine system — the "reward" pathway that fuels the cycle of addiction.
Sports-betting advertising is engineered to be a cue: bright, constant, impossible to avoid. These are exactly the conditions that drive cravings and relapse.
And the industry's preferred defence — "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 online betting was legalized in Canada in 2021. A systematic review of 166 studies1, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that responsible-gambling messaging does not reduce harm.
In March 2026, a separate CMAJ study tied the legalization of online gambling in Canada to a surge in help-seeking from those affected.
Sources
- Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), systematic review of 166 studies on responsible-gambling messaging (2025).
What gambling addiction can do.
When gambling becomes a problem, it can result in:
Gambling ads are poisoning the culture of sport.
When the bet becomes the storyline, the game suffers. Betting disembodies sport — it reduces a whole-body, culturally rich form of human interaction to solitary fingering on a smartphone. In-game betting is about micro-results, such as who scores the first goal or whether the next pitch is a ball or a strike, not the game itself. And Canada's crisis of physical inactivity is only exacerbated by an industry that turns sport into something you wager on rather than something you play.
Sports betting also encourages game manipulation and cheating, and it subjects players who disappoint bettors to violence and abuse — a risk that extends to officials, coaches, and other vulnerable people around the game. Children memorize betting slogans before they finish primary school. Every broadcast becomes a vehicle for promotion rather than play.
"Gambling ads are insulting to the audience, bad for children and youth, and they demean sports and its integrity."
Other countries are already acting.
In June 2023, an Australian parliamentary committee recommended a complete ban on gambling advertising within three years — a phased approach that would end social-media and online ads first, then broadcast advertising around sports, then all gambling advertising by daylight hours, and finally all gambling advertising from screens entirely. Australia has since imposed some restrictions, though far short of what its own committee recommended.
Some countries have gone further: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy have banned most gambling advertising outright. In the United States, the picture is a patchwork — every state sets its own rules, the federal SAFE Bet Act introduced in late 2024 has not advanced, and the current administration has promoted gambling rather than restrained it.
Canada legalized single-game sports betting in 2021 without any of the guidelines recommended by experts. Bill S‑211 is a chance to correct that mistake.
See the country-by-country comparison → Read the background →Canadians want change.
An Angus Reid Institute survey (May 2026) found Canadians deeply uneasy about the growth of sports betting — with the volume of advertising a leading driver of concern.
Sources
- Angus Reid Institute, “Risky bet?” — released May 19, 2026; 1,803 Canadian adults surveyed May 7–11, 2026.
The arguments, one page at a time.
Campaign members are writing a series of concise briefs on the core arguments for limiting gambling advertising. They'll arrive here through the summer — printable, citable, and built for sharing.
A public-health crisis →
A public-health crisis
Why gambling harm is a population-level health problem, not a personal failing.
Coming soon"Responsible gambling" is irresponsible
How the industry's preferred slogan shifts blame and, per a 166-study review, fails to reduce harm.
Coming soonLessons from tobacco
What Canada's tobacco-advertising ban teaches us about regulating gambling ads.
Coming soonAn international movement
The global allies pushing back — including Stop Predatory Gambling.
Coming soonYouth & young people →
Child gambling
How constant advertising reaches children and adolescents — and why young brains are most at risk.
Coming soonA crisis of masculinity
Why young men are the prime target of betting marketing — and what that does to them.
Coming soonA threat to sport →
Match fixing and competition manipulation
Match-fixing and the inducements that follow when every play is a betting market.
Coming soonA safe sport issue
The abuse athletes face from bettors when results don't match the wager.
Coming soonThe Macolin Convention
The international treaty against the manipulation of sports competitions.
Coming soonThe corruption of sports journalism
How betting sponsorships turned trusted broadcasters and writers into promoters.
Coming soonFamilies & communities →
Problem gambling never stops at one person — read the full page on the harm to families and communities.
Follow the money →
Foreign ownership
Who really owns the betting platforms operating in Canada — and where the money goes.
Coming soon"Taxes don't pay the bills"
The myth that gambling revenue offsets the public cost of gambling harm.
Coming soonYou've read the case.
Now help us make it heard.
Bill S‑211 has passed the Senate and second reading in the House — final votes come this fall. Your MP needs to hear from Canadians who've seen the harm and want it to stop.