Don’t bet on gambling legislation anytime soon

Are you tired of all those sports betting ads? Hoping for legislation to rein in the ever-expanding gambling industry?

Experts say don’t put money on it happening anytime soon in Canada. While some new rules may nibble around the edges, substantive harm reduction laws will take years to develop. The money earned from the gambling industry is just too good for government and private companies, including the country’s media and sports firms.

“Governments depend on gambling revenues, so there’s a fairly big disincentive to pass legislation that could reduce these revenues,” says Fiona Nicoll, research chair in gambling policy with the Alberta Gambling Research Institute.

“Based on past experience, it may well take a generation” for any real change to happen.

Even mild gambling rollbacks are unlikely. Canada’s only federal legislative effort so far, aimed at gambling advertising, probably won’t make it to the finish line intact before the next election if one is called in the first half of 2025. Bill S-269 aims to provide a framework to cut the number of sports ads and restrict the use of celebrities and athletes to help protect youth and problem gamblers.

Despite calls from public and mental health experts to impose some limits, no other federal laws or mandatory harm reduction policies are currently being considered, although some consideration is being given at the provincial level.

In Canada, the Criminal Code is the primary statute governing gambling, setting out gaming and betting offences. The practice is only legal when managed by a provincial government.

“There’s a general consensus that there have to be some guardrails, but the question is how much,” says Stephen Selznick, a partner at Cassels in Toronto.

“Legislation will come, but it will take a while.”

Part of the problem with Bill S-269 is that the government didn’t introduce it — it’s a private member’s bill that originated in the Senate, says Ron Segev, a founding partner of Segev LLP, who specializes in gaming and betting law.

“They might take another kick at the can in future parliamentary sessions, perhaps in a year or two,” he adds.

Little financial incentive to act

When the United States decided to relax its gambling laws six years ago, Canada followed suit in 2021. Ontario was first out of the gate to take advantage of the change, launching its regulated market in 2022. The province also created iGaming Ontario, a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which allows private firms to operate as contractors working for the government.

Since then, betting advertising, wagers, and government coffers have exploded. In 2023-2024, iGaming Ontario posted $2.4 billion in gaming revenue, a more than 70 percent jump year on year. A separate Deloitte report found the iGaming market contributed $1.24 billion to federal, provincial, and municipal government coffers.

Alberta is expected to follow suit and give the green light to online gambling soon.

Even before the relaxation of rules, Canada was a nation of gamblers. More than three-quarters of the population takes part, the vast majority picking numbers for the lotteries. Virtual gambling has surged since the pandemic, with online casino users doubling since 2020. 

Sports betting still forms a small part of the overall numbers, but it is the public face of gambling and gets the most attention. Nicoll says there is some concern that sports wagers normalize betting as a whole and “funnel” people into casino gambling.

Polls show most Canadians want some brakes, particularly around marketing to youth. A majority of respondents want a total ban on sports betting advertising. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital, says the government needs to limit gambling advertising as a public health measure.

Making the link

But if history is any guide, rules will be difficult to implement. Despite the obvious connection, activists say one of the biggest problems is convincing politicians to pass harm reduction legislation, given the challenge of proving a direct harmful link to gambling advertising. A lack of evidence stymied anti-smoking legislation for decades.

“The gambling industry uses the ‘insufficient evidence’ argument as a narrative device to counter arguments for increased regulation,“ says Luke Clark, director of the Centre for Gambling Research at the University of British Colombia.

“But it’s not ethically or practically viable to conduct a controlled experiment on how long-term exposure to gambling ads affects young people.”

Evidence is unlikely to emerge for another reason. Nicoll says that most harm reduction research focuses on individual responsibility instead of the betting ecosystem. Helping problem gamblers is the main goal — not stopping harm from happening in the first place by changing the environment.

To what extent betting advertising should be treated differently from the other sin industries — tobacco, alcohol and weed — where advertising is strictly controlled is a matter for debate.

Proponents of gambling say that betting will happen no matter what. The liberalization of regulations south of the border all but guaranteed that laws in Canada had to change quickly. They argue advertising helps distinguish regulated firms from “black hat” operators.

“Advertising is important to show who is registered and who isn’t — to let people know who is allowed to take your bets,” Segev says.

“By allowing firms to advertise on TV, billboards and whatnot, you’re letting them crowd out the black market with their messaging.”

Rather than focusing on bans, education and promoting responsible gambling should be priorities. Proponents argue it’s better to have a safer legal system that can be taxed rather than push it offshore or towards organized crime.

A casino in your pocket

Critics say having a casino in your pocket, available 24 hours a day, is a bad idea. Mental Health Research Canada estimates that 15 per cent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 are at a high risk of problem gambling. Further, problem gamblers have one of the highest suicide rates of any addiction.

Many worry that the proliferation of gambling marketing on every type of media promotes the idea that betting is a regular part of the sports experience. Canadian viewers — young and old — now spend about 20 per cent of any game watching betting ads and gambling messages, while talking about betting has become a regular feature of Canadian sports commentary.

Canadian policymakers had plenty of evidence that relaxing the rules would lead to explosive advertising. Britain and Australia have been wrestling with what to do about gambling harms and marketing for decades. Some jurisdictions, including Italy, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, have recently introduced strict regulations, some banning ads entirely. 

“Canadian legislators dropped the ball when they did not consider the international experience,” says Bruce Kidd, former Olympian, Campaign to Ban Ads for Gambling member, and professor emeritus of sports policy at the University of Toronto.

“Several MPs have told us that that was a huge mistake.”

Asked about Canadian policymakers’ decision to liberalize sports betting rules, Moshe Lander, a sports economist at Concordia University, says: “For sure they rushed it.”

However, he says, “There was no time to look for best practice policies from other countries” when America changed its legislation in 2018.

Stringent restrictions likely not in the cards

Policymakers in other jurisdictions are considering their options. In the UK, the new Labour government is under significant pressure to act given the wall-to-wall advertising in the country, the second-largest gambling market after the US.

Voluntary measures do not appear to be working there. Researchers found that the number of betting ads during the opening weekend of the Premier League season in September almost tripled compared to the same period last year.  

Meanwhile, politicians in Australia, which leads the world in gambling losses, have yet to decide on a firm strategy despite years of heated debate. Experts say they are unlikely to impose a ban on sports advertising.

In Canada, stringent prohibitions or restrictions are likely not in the cards, as they would be politically too difficult. Sen. Marty Deacon, the sponsor of Bill S-269, has acknowledged this, which is why her proposed legislation calls for the minister of Canadian heritage to develop collaboratively a national framework for sports betting advertising with a view to establishing “reasonable limits.” 

“The bill is only a framework, not a drill down,” says Cassel’s Selznick.

“This will give the federal government the standing to convene more conversations with provincial stakeholders.”

To be sure, the gambling industry has not entirely stood still in the face of criticism. According to reports, Ad Standards, a not-for-profit self-regulatory organization, and the Canadian Gaming Association are working on a code for responsible advertising.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Ontario banned athletes from promoting gambling. They are, however, allowed to appear in ads advocating for responsible gambling, providing "a truck-sized loophole" in the regulations, according to critics.

Few believe the next federal government will be interested in reviving the current bill should it fail.

“I don’t think they care one lick, and I don’t think it’s going to be an issue in the election,” Lander says. 

Canada is nowhere in terms of harm reduction and consumer protection policies that are now standard in many mature markets — like credit card prohibitions.

Some say a motivator for change might be the increase in gambling among new demographics, in particular young men who develop problems after initially enjoying sports betting apps in social contexts with their peers. Parental concerns could increase political pressures to make platforms safer and restrict advertising in this growing market. 

“That expansion of the gambling market is making people sit up and take notice,” says Nicoll.

“This may bend history in a new way.”