Online Gambling in Ontario: The Harms of Sports Betting and Why We Must Act
This is the third article I have written about online gambling, and I am becoming increasingly angry at what I see happening.
I am angry at the predatory behaviour of online gambling companies. I am angry at media companies that accept their advertising and allow gambling to become embedded in sports broadcasts and other programming. And I am angry at a provincial government that appears more interested in the revenue generated by online gambling than in the harm it is causing Ontarians, particularly young people, but also adults of all ages.
I am equally frustrated by the lack of public resistance from media personalities. Ron MacLean, for example, stood by Don Cherry for years despite Cherry's racist and misogynistic comments, only to distance himself from his longtime colleague when the controversy became untenable. Where are the prominent sports personalities willing to challenge the gambling industry and the media companies that promote it?
You can read my first two posts on this subject here:
Unfortunately, the problem is getting worse, just as I feared.
The evidence is becoming harder to ignore
The 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) reported some deeply concerning findings:
Online gambling: Overall, 12% of students reported online gambling. Online sports betting increased tenfold, from 1% in 2017 to 10% in 2025, following changes to Ontario's regulated online gambling market.
Advertising: Nearly one in four students reported seeing or hearing online gambling advertisements every day.
These figures should concern every parent, educator and policymaker in Ontario. Online sports betting has become increasingly accessible to young people, while gambling advertising has become a routine part of the media they consume.
The findings are not limited to Ontario students. On November 12, 2025, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) published Online Gambling Among Young Canadian Adults: A Call to Action. Its findings paint an equally troubling picture.
Online gambling carries substantially greater risks
Compared with people who participated only in lotteries, those who reported gambling online in the previous year were:
10 times more likely to exceed lower-risk gambling thresholds (93.8% versus 9.4%).
45.3 times more likely to meet the criteria for problem gambling (40.8% versus 0.9%).
21.1 times more likely to report high levels of gambling-related harm (19.0% versus 0.9%).
Young adults are particularly vulnerable
The CCSA report found that:
About one in three young adults aged 18–29 (32.0%) reported gambling online.
Young adults were 3.3 times more likely to report online gambling than lottery-only participation (32.0% versus 9.8%).
Among young adults who gambled online, 69.4% met the criteria for problem gambling, while 23.5% reported high levels of gambling-related harm.
Compared with online gamblers aged 65 and older, young adult online gamblers were 6.1 times more likely to meet the criteria for problem gambling (69.4% versus 11.4%) and 2.3 times more likely to report high levels of gambling-related harm (23.5% versus 10.2%).
The report also found that the elevated risks associated with online gambling, compared with lottery-only and other forms of gambling, were evident across age and gender groups and across the Canadian regions included in the survey.
These findings are alarming. They show that the risks of online gambling extend well beyond a small group of people who might otherwise be considered vulnerable.
We should have seen this coming
Making potentially addictive gambling products available around the clock on a smartphone was always going to create risks. Online gambling offers immediate access, rapid betting and the ability to chase losses without ever leaving home.
Now add professional sports teams, betting companies, media outlets and government working within the same commercial ecosystem. I would say they are collaborating together. Gambling is promoted during games, integrated into sports commentary and presented as a normal part of being a fan.
The result is an environment in which betting is not simply available; it is continually promoted and normalized.
And the consequences go far beyond losing a wager. Problem gambling can lead to debt, financial hardship, relationship breakdown, sleep disruption and social isolation. It is also associated with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Yet we still lack adequate Ontario data to establish how many suicide deaths are specifically linked to online gambling.
How much more evidence do we need before governments treat this as a serious public-health issue?
Did the Ontario government ignore its own warnings?
On October 16, 2026, the Toronto Star reported that the Ontario government had been warned about the dangers of online gambling but had withheld a report examining those risks.
If the reporting is accurate, this raises serious questions about the government's priorities and its willingness to be transparent with the public.
The government has a responsibility to protect Ontarians, not simply to collect revenue from an industry that may be causing significant harm. If officials received credible warnings about the risks of online gambling, the public deserves to know what those warnings said, how the government responded and why the findings were not made public.
A government cannot credibly claim to be protecting its citizens while failing to explain what it knew about the potential consequences of its own gambling policies.
We need transparency, accountability and action—not silence.
So, what should we do?
I don't want to simply complain about the problem. We need practical solutions, and I believe the Ontario government should take the following steps.
1. Ban online gambling advertising across all media
Prohibit paid online gambling advertisements on television, radio, websites, social media, search engines, podcasts and outdoor advertising. The restrictions should also cover promotional emails, text messages, affiliate marketing, free bets, deposit bonuses and other inducements designed to attract or retain customers.
We already restrict advertising for other products and activities when there are significant public-health concerns. Online gambling should be no exception.
2. Ban gambling sponsorships and embedded promotion
Gambling companies should not be permitted to sponsor sports teams, leagues, stadiums, jerseys, podcasts, sports broadcasts or media programs.
The ban should also cover paid influencer promotions and gambling-branded segments delivered by sports commentators and other media personalities.
There is a difference between allowing adults to make their own choices and using the credibility of their favourite teams, athletes and broadcasters to encourage those choices.
Sponsorship makes gambling appear to be an ordinary part of watching sports, even when no conventional advertisement is running.
Sports should be about competition, skill and entertainment—not a continuous sales pitch for betting.
3. Ban online gambling—or, at a minimum, restrict its most dangerous forms
My preference is to ban online gambling in Ontario. The evidence of harm, particularly among young people, warrants serious consideration of whether the benefits of maintaining this market justify its costs.
If the government is unwilling to go that far, it should immediately prohibit or sharply restrict the products and practices most likely to encourage intensive gambling, including:
In-play sports betting, which allows repeated wagers during a game.
Online casino games that facilitate rapid, continuous betting.
Credit-card deposits, borrowing and other forms of gambling on credit.
VIP schemes, personalized inducements and bonuses designed to encourage greater spending.
Features that encourage people to chase losses or place another bet immediately.
A prohibition would need to be supported by effective enforcement against illegal operators and measures to prevent people from simply migrating to unregulated sites. That challenge deserves serious attention, but it should not be used as an excuse to avoid considering prohibition.
At the very least, Ontario must stop treating the expansion of online gambling as an unquestioned commercial success.
4. Introduce mandatory financial safeguards
Require operators to implement meaningful deposit, loss and time limits across all licensed online gambling sites. Consider mandatory safeguards and affordability checks for high-risk spending, together with cooling-off periods before limits can be increased.
Operators should also be required to identify patterns that suggest serious gambling harm and intervene appropriately. Sending a generic responsible-gambling message after someone has lost substantial sums is not an adequate response.
The responsibility to prevent harm cannot rest entirely on the individual when the industry profits from continued gambling.
5. Make self-exclusion comprehensive and effective
Create a single, province-wide self-exclusion system that blocks access to every licensed online gambling site, supported by reliable identity verification and meaningful enforcement.
People seeking help should not have to register separately with dozens of operators. The system should also explore bank-level gambling transaction blocks, confidential support for affected families and immediate referrals to treatment.
Self-exclusion is important, but it should be one part of a broader prevention strategy—not a substitute for reducing the industry's ability to expose people to harmful products and promotions.
6. Treat gambling-related suicide as a public-health priority
The government should improve the collection and publication of data on gambling-related harm, including problem gambling, financial distress, suicide attempts and suicide deaths.
Where appropriate, suicide investigations should consistently document relevant gambling problems and financial pressures. Research should also examine the links between online gambling exposure, gambling disorders, financial hardship and suicidal behaviour, with appropriate privacy protections.
Ontario should publish annual reports so the public can see the extent of the problem and whether government interventions are making a difference.
We cannot effectively address a public-health problem if we fail to measure it properly. Nor should families affected by gambling-related tragedy have to struggle to make their experiences count in public policy.
It is time to act
The harm is real. The warning signs are increasingly difficult to ignore. Young people are being exposed to online gambling at an alarming rate, while betting companies and their commercial partners benefit from the expansion of the market.
The Ontario government must explain how it intends to reconcile its responsibility to protect the public with its financial interest in online gambling. Media companies and sports organizations must also take responsibility for the role they play in normalizing and promoting betting.
I believe the government should ban online gambling. If it refuses to do so, it must at least ban advertising and sponsorships, restrict the most dangerous products, impose enforceable safeguards and invest in prevention and treatment.
This is not simply about whether someone should be allowed to place a bet. It is about the kind of society we want to live in, the risks we are willing to impose on our young people and whether public institutions will put the well-being of citizens ahead of commercial interests.
We know enough to act. We should not wait for the problem to get worse before we do.
I welcome thoughtful, respectful feedback and comments. You can reach me at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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