Hello friends and supporters:
It’s been a while since our last update, and we hope you’ve had a chance to explore all the new information on our website at banadsforgambling.ca. A lot has been happening on the legislative front, and the reports from health professionals and researchers confirm that the public health crisis of problem gambling, fueled by aggressive, targeted ads, is getting worse. There has been progress at the federal level, a setback in Ontario, and new research and new books that make our campaign to ban the ads more urgent than ever.
What You Can Do Right Now
Contact your MP. If you haven’t already, please send a letter to your federal representative urging them to support Bill S-211 and a strong national framework — or better yet, a full ban on gambling advertising. We’ve made it easy: there’s a form letter ready to go on our website at banadsforgambling.ca. It takes just a few minutes, and it makes a real difference. If you’ve already sent a letter — thank you! — please consider talking to friends and family about this important issue and encouraging them to send a letter to their MP as well.
Contact your MPP. The Ford government may have voted down Bill 107, but they said they’re watching the issue. Let them know their constituents are watching too.
Share the research. The reports below are publicly available. Send them to friends, post them on social media, use them in conversations.
Stay with us. Every letter, every phone call, every share matters.
Federal Bill S-211: Moving Forward
There is good news on the national front. Bill S-211 — the National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act — passed the Senate and had its first reading in the House of Commons back on November 5. Then, in late April, it took a major step forward. Prime Minister Mark Carney was among the 298 yes votes when the House of Commons advanced S-211 on April 22.
What would S-211 actually do? It would require the Minister of Canadian Heritage to develop a national framework identifying measures to restrict sports betting advertising — limiting the volume, scope, or location of ads — and potentially restricting or banning the use of celebrities and athletes in promotional materials. It also directs the CRTC to review its existing regulations. The Minister would be required to hold public hearings on potential regulations, and complete the entire process within one year. We are preparing draft regulations for those hearings.
In those hearings, we will be arguing for a full ban on advertising. Senator Deacon, who sponsored the bill, has said she would have pursued an outright ban if that were a realistic avenue, but she recognizes there are Charter implications. However, just as with tobacco and cannabis, we will be arguing that the severity of a public health crisis can overcome a Charter challenge to a restriction on advertising.
We will also be arguing against ‘responsible gambling’. Currently, celebrities whose major appeal is to minors, and athletes, are permitted to appear in ads only to promote ‘responsible gambling.’ But the overall message of ‘responsible gambling’ is that gambling is okay — while bettors should be careful, i.e. ‘responsible’, the message is that betting is a normal part of sports, and fun. ‘Responsible gambling’ messaging was invented by the British betting industry a generation ago to sanitize the gambling industry’s seedy reputation, and encourage more gambling. As the international research makes clear, -responsible gambling’ is a “blame the victim” approach that simply does not work. The normalization of gambling through ads targeted at young people, especially young men and boys, is at the heart of what our campaign is fighting against. There is no evidence - anywhere! - that ‘responsible gambling’ reduces the harm. It won’t be enough to limit the guardrails to sports betting either. In the course of our advocacy, both representatives of the gambling companies and critical researchers have told us that sports betting is just the entry point to the even more addictive form of gambling in online casinos.
Notwithstanding its limitations, S-211 represents meaningful federal momentum, and we’ll keep pushing for the framework to be as strong as possible.
Ontario Bill 107: Defeated — But the Conversation Isn’t Over
In Ontario, the picture is more frustrating. Liberal MPP Lee Fairclough introduced Bill 107, the Stop Harmful Gambling Advertising Act, which would have made it illegal for Ontario sports betting and iGaming operators to advertise or otherwise promote their platforms via television, social media, and paid sponsorships.
The Progressive Conservative government defeated the bill by a vote of 60–33. MPP Billy Denault, speaking for the government, argued that regulating — rather than restricting — online gambling makes it safer.
But this is not the end of the story. Shortly after voting down the bill, the Ford government said it is seriously considering how to handle the explosion in betting ads, with the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming Stan Cho indicating he understood the concerns. That tells us the pressure is working. The government may have voted no, but they are recognizing that people are concerned. We are seeking a meeting with Minister Cho to discuss what can be done at the provincial level to stop these ads. Despite repeated efforts, we have still to hear from him.
The Research Is On Our Side — And It’s Alarming
For anyone who still wonders whether gambling advertising is really a public health problem, the evidence keeps mounting. Two important publications from 2025 make the case compellingly.
In September, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial — Protecting Canada’s Youth from the Risks of Exposure to Gambling Advertising — calling for strong, effective legislation to protect young Canadians. The authors argue that sports betting ads have saturated broadcasts since 2021, that online gambling has turned every smartphone into a betting platform, and that children are being harmed despite official age restrictions. You can read it here.
Then in November, a major report — Online Gambling Among Young Canadian Adults: A Call to Action — was released jointly by Greo Evidence Insights, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, and Mental Health Research Canada, drawing on survey data from more than 8,000 Canadians. You can read it here.
The numbers are striking. Among young adults aged 18 to 29 who gambled online in the past year, 69.4% met the criteria for problem gambling and nearly one in four — 23.5% — experienced high levels of gambling-related harm, including depleted savings, increased credit card debt, and serious impacts on their emotional wellbeing. About one in three young adults overall reported gambling online.
The report also found that people who gamble online are about 10 times more likely to exceed lower-risk gambling thresholds, and over 45 times more likely to meet the criteria for problem gambling, compared to people who only play the lottery.
As Dr. Matthew Young of Greo put it: Young adults are emerging as the group most at risk. Nearly one in three gambles online, and those who do are far more likely to develop gambling problems and suffer related harms.
This is exactly why we’re fighting for an advertising ban — not just restrictions, but a ban. Advertising normalizes online gambling, and it’s young people who are paying the price.
Companion Books
Imitation Games: How Gambling Hijacked Sports (Penguin), by Darragh McGee. Carefully researched and engagingly written, Imitation Games examines the exponential growth of global sports betting, with a focus on the British entrepreneurs who pioneered the advertising and digital technologies of continuous betting around soccer. It’s a searing indictment of the hijacking of sports, transforming ‘the beautiful game’ into the compulsion of endless betting, deliberately addicting players, managers and fans alike, with devastating financial and family loss, including suicide.
Everybody loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling (Simon and Shuster), by Danny Funt. Exhaustingly researched, Everybody Loses tellingly documents the US history of sports betting, the political strategies employed by the gambling companies, the professional sports teams and the media giants to win over state legislators, the profits they make and the tremendous harm they leave in their wake.
Taken together, these books illuminate how we got here in very sobering terms. Both offer well thought-through proposals for remedy and reform.
Revised Website
In May we engaged Ellen Li on a contractual, part-time basis to help us with our IT needs. Her first project has been a comprehensive overhaul of our website. Ellen is in the process of making it easier to navigate and to find the critical and current information about the growing public health crisis that is being fueled by the aggressive ads. We plan to have the new website ready by early August and to launch a new ad campaign using Google Advertising and Microsoft Advertising. The goal is to attract people to our website where they can learn more about our Campaign to Ban Ads For Gambling and be invited to send a letter to their MP. Our current letter-writing campaign, which has been running since February, has generated almost 200 letters that have been sent to MPs. With the new website and ad campaigns, we hope the number of letters will increase. With Ellen’s help, we also plan to develop a presence on social media, where we will encourage people to visit our website and to send letters to their MPs and MPPs.
Financial Report
We have been very fortunate to have donors who have been very generous in supporting our campaign. As a result, at this stage, the campaign is financially stable.
However, the lobbying and communication needs of the campaign far outdistance what our small volunteer organization can achieve. Our counterparts in other countries enjoy large full-time staffs, and dedicated offices. As you have read above, we have now hired part-time staff, and hope to expand staff and related activities as soon as possible. To do so, requires fundraising on an ongoing basis.
We urge all supporters of Ban Ads for Gambling to make our objectives known and direct friends and colleagues to our website where they can make a donation: BanAdsforGambling.ca.
Thank you for your continued support. We’ll keep you posted as things develop.
— The Campaign Team