Advocacy group wants federal government to ban all ads for online gambling

An advocacy group is calling on the federal government to ban all ads for online gambling, including prediction markets, saying the move is needed to arrest what it calls “a new and urgent public health crisis” that has exploded in the four years since Ontario invited private companies to offer online sports betting and casino games.

Ban Ads for Gambling submitted a brief on Tuesday to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is studying a proposed federal law that would regulate ads for sports gambling.

The bill passed its second reading 291-28 in April and was referred to committee.

The group, led by former Olympian Bruce Kidd, says Bill S-211 doesn’t go far enough in its restrictions. It urges the government to add “online casinos, video games, prediction markets and other forms of online gambling” to the areas it would regulate under the law and calls for an immediate ban on “all forms of advertising for sports betting and other forms of gambling.”

“Canada has reduced the harm from similar products, particularly tobacco and cannabis, by restricting their advertising, establishing age restrictions for consumption and product warnings, conducting public education, and pursuing other public health strategies,” the group said in its submission, which it shared with The Globe and Mail. “We should do the same with sports betting and online gambling.”

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The call comes as more evidence is emerging that links the expansion of regulated online gambling in North America with public health harms.

On Wednesday, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry that found an association between sports betting legalization and people seeking treatment for mental health conditions.

The study, which analyzed insurance claims data for more than 61 million Americans, reported increases in people filling prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants in states where online sports betting has been legalized. The researchers also found an uptick in outpatient visits among people diagnosed with anxiety or depression.

In June, another study published by Epic Research found that the rate of gambling disorder diagnoses grew by 61 per cent between 2018 and 2026 in states where online sports betting was legalized. (The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law against sports gambling in 2018, leaving states to set up their own regulatory regimes.) Meanwhile, the rate of gambling disorder diagnoses dropped in states that did not legalize such activity.

Canadian researchers have also recently reported increases in gambling-related emergency room visits and calls to addiction helplines in Ontario, which became the first province to open its legal online gambling market to private companies in 2022. In August 2026, the most recent month for which data are available, 1.2 million gambling accounts were active in the province, up 19 per cent from August 2025.

In July, Alberta became the second province to open its market to private operators.

The Canadian Gaming Association, which represents the gambling industry, said in a June submission to the Heritage committee that advertising for gambling in Canada is already “fully regulated” and overseen by the provinces. The brief notes that “the Governments of Alberta and Ontario oppose Bill S-211.”

In April, Ontario Liberal MPP Lee Fairclough introduced a private members bill that would have banned most forms of online gambling advertising. It was defeated by the Ford government in second reading.

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Senator Marty Deacon, the sponsor of Bill S-211 in the Senate, said in a statement to The Globe on Wednesday that she is appreciative of the work done by Ban Ads for Gambling, but the amendment proposed by the group, “could be considered out of scope of this bill. It is a framework bill and doesn’t amend any existing act through which to instill a ban.”

Senator Deacon noted that she had co-signed a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney last November with Senator Percy Downe and 40 other senators that called for a full ban on all advertising for sports betting.

“I would have loved a full ban, but in the early days based on our legal learnings from the Supreme Court of Canada on Tobacco, along with threshold for alcohol and cannabis, I believe my bill may have been delayed or not passed because of continued concern around freedom of speech. I was hopeful we could get something done and quickly to address this issue. Some might say, “not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

The Heritage committee will convene its first meeting on the matter on Oct. 22, with Senator Deacon scheduled to appear.