Advocate calls for ban on sports betting ads as legislation moves through Parliament

“At the time they’re finally potentially going to pass this two years later, it does not seem enough,” he said.

Joordens said sports betting ads have a particularly strong impact on young people.

“They’re much more likely to be in front of sport in the first place, are much more likely to be engaged in the sport, and so that means first of all, they’re much more likely to be exposed to the marketing because you cannot come near sport without getting exposed to the marketing,” he said.

Online gambling has been a growing phenomenon in Canada, driven by COVID-19 closures of public spaces in 2020 and the federal government’s decision in 2021 to legalize single-event sports betting. In Ontario, the number of online gaming options soared after the province opened up online gaming to private operators in 2022.

Ontario made that move after arguing that people were already gambling on international websites that were not subject to any regulations.

The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health survey reported in 2025 that 23 per cent of students in the province reported seeing or hearing an ad for online gambling at least once a day.

Joordens said younger people do not have the mental tools to allow them to gamble safely and the advertisements that pull them in are harmful.

“An 18 year-old has the primitive brain fully developed that’s going to make them love the experience of gambling, but they don’t have the frontal lobes developed to let them know, ‘Hey this isn’t smart, you should really stop,'” he said.

The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health survey says the percentage of students saying they engaged in online sports betting has increased significantly, from one per cent of Ontario students in 2017 to 10 per cent in 2025.

The federal government conceded the right to regulate gaming to the provinces in 1985. Deacon said the ads can easily cross provincial borders, making them a federal concern.

“In B.C., they’re getting Ontario ads, in P.E.I., in the North. So what we have is our provincial jurisdiction took a little bit of a dive when the type of ways of being exposed to this changed,” she said.

The Alberta Gambling Research Institute said in 2025 that in Ontario, the number of people with gambling problems more than doubled in a seven-year period — from about 43,000 in 2018 to more than 130,000 in 2025.

Paul Burns of the Canadian Gaming Association said provinces have the best background for dealing with the issue and the regulations should be left to them.

“The provinces have set up regimes based on their wishes for the province, so we think they still have the best tools to do it,” he said.

Burns also said gambling ads account for just two per cent all advertising on television, and sports betting revenue is only about five per cent of all gaming revenue in Canada.

In November 2025, shortly after the Senate passed Bill S-211, 40 senators wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney asking him to ban all ads for sports betting websites and apps.

Sen. Percy Downe, who was among those who signed that letter, said in January the proliferation of ads for sports betting has been “relentless” and has “crossed a line.”

“We banned ads for cigarettes because of the harmful effects of smoking on public health. We have mounting evidence that gambling is seriously harmful to Canadians’ health and so the same logic should apply,” he said in an online post.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2026.

Alyssa Wheeler, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Advocate calls for ban on sports betting ads as legislation moves through Parliament

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