The online gambling industry is an incredibly lucrative enterprise that has tripled in the past decade, and continues to grow With that growth, however, comes the costs to public health and problems for more and more Quebecers. Research from Concordia University found that the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown changed gaming habits, and there are now almost three times more people playing poker, buying lottery tickets, betting on sports and engaging in other online games of chance than there were in 2018. Between 15 and 20 per cent of Quebecers gambled online in 2021, and only 1.4 per cent of those have stopped since, according to the study. “There is part of it that could be explained by the pandemic,” said lead researcher Sylvia Kariouz. “But there has been a steady increase in online gambling over every year, and we have seen this trend, not only in Quebec and in Canada, but worldwide, and the revenues that are generated by online gambling have been increasing steadily. We feel like the increase was not expected to be as big as that.” The study surveyed over 4,500 Quebecers and found 96 gamblers “representative of the population” who were interviewed about their gaming experiences. The tripling of gamblers, Kariouz said, and the push to get more people in the games from online gaming operators and companies means the numbers are likely not going to go down or even out any time soon. “We have seen some forms to become more popular, like sports betting, which was marginal 10 years ago in Canada, is now practised by a lot of people, practised by younger youth and young adults,” she said. “We see that the ecosystem of online gambling, like the whole environment, is changing with more advertisement, more visibility, pushing the market really in a very capitalist way.” She added that the gaming market has been aided by legislation change, making it possible to place more bets more often in more ways, as well as technological change, where users can bet on their phones. “There is no limit to the accessibility,” she said. “It’s like the ideal environment, for companies to make this offering available everywhere and for everybody.” She said the decreased traffic to casinos, betting parlors, BINGO halls and other in-person gaming establishments has been captured and exceeded online. “We’re seeing this booming, actually,” she said. Reversing the trend She said a way to reverse this trend would be bans on advertisement, much like similar bans on the tobacco industry, as well as a true change in the approach to gambling and acknowledgement of its possible harms. “We have to acknowledge the risk that is associated with gambling, which is sometimes not a given,” she said. “We need to have a regulator that should look at the market and say that there should be limits in terms of advertisement, in terms of how operators should put in place some safeguards to protect the gamblers.”
