National regulation of sports-betting advertising needed now, says parent and physician

Betting kiosks are seen at the new MGM National Harbor sportsbook, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

With an increase in sports-betting advertisements has come an increase in worry about their effect on children.

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“My eight-year-old wants me to place a bet on a game for him. He asked me to do that a few weeks ago and that was really concerning,” Dr. Shannon Charlebois, a family physician in Ontario who is advocating for national online betting regulations, told CTV News Edmonton in a recent interview.

“When I watched a hockey game with my seven- and eight-year-old(s), they’re asking me as many questions about the segments on the statistics for betting as they are about the finer points of what icing is.”

Online gambling, sometimes called iGaming – including single-game sports betting – was legalized in Canada in 2021.

Since then, gambling ads have appeared not just on TV, but also on player jerseys and arena side boards, while smartphones have become betting platforms.

Regulations for online betting vary between the provinces. Currently, Alberta is consulting stakeholders to create an online gambling strategy, including regulations.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario attempted to protect youth from the risks of online gambling – including substance use and mental illness, according to available research – by prohibiting ads featuring athletes and celebrities in 2024.

However, Charlebois, in a recent editorial for Canadian Medical Association Journal, says advertisers quickly adopted phrasing about responsible gambling to circumvent the rules.

Professor Fiona Nicoll, a researcher at the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, agrees young people being exposed to gambling ads is a problem because their brains are still developing.

“Think about the ‘I’ in ‘iGaming.’ That’s you, the individual, who are expected to regulate your consumption of gambling and that’s a really big problem, especially for young people,” Nicoll said.

She is teaching a public course about gambling literacy at the University of Alberta in November.

“We need everybody to be as knowledgeable as they can be.”

Charlebois wants Bill S-211, which would create a national framework to regulate sports betting advertising and standards about risk prevention, expedited. It passed its second reading in the senate in June.

“It is not a magic bullet, it’s not specific to what needs to be done exactly, but it is at least a start,” Charlebois told CTV News Edmonton.

Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, the agency responsible for administering related legislation in the province, also operates a self-exclusion program for all casinos, racing venues, and Play Alberta, the province’s only regulated online gambling website. For the amount of time they sign up, Albertans will not be allowed on those properties.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny