New study finds sharp rise in young men contacting Ontario gambling helpline

Canada's financial intelligence agency warns that illicit cash is being laundered through online gambling sites that offer a variety of ways to disguise shady funds. A "deal" button on a casino app in shown on a smartphone in a photo illustration made in Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini

The rate of young men contacting Ontario’s mental health helpline for gambling-related problems has increased by more than 300 per cent after the province allowed private online gambling, a new study suggests.

The researchers behind the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday say the findings represent a need for stronger harm-reduction measures and more access to treatment.

The study analyzed the number of contacts to ConnexOntario, the province’s free 24-hour mental health and addictions helpline, for gambling-related concerns from January 2012 to September 2025.

It noted an increase after January 2015, when the government launched the gambling platform PlayOLG, as well as after the province expanded private online gambling in April 2022.

Over the 13-year period researchers looked at, ConnexOntario was contacted more than 745,700 times, the study said, and about 37,000 of those contacts were gambling-related.

The study found that among boys and men aged 15 to 24, the mean monthly rate of gambling-related outreach per million people rose by 317 per cent from the time before Ontario’s launch of PlayOLG to the period after the privatization of online gambling.

The rate increased about 108 per cent over the same time frame for men aged 25 to 44, the study further found. Prior to the policy changes, the rates were stable, it said.

While better awareness of the hotline could be a factor, the spike may not be solely explained by people seeking help for existing problems, said Dr. Daniel Myran, a research chair at North York General Hospital who co-authored the study.

“There’s very good evidence that most people with gambling disorders or gambling problems don’t seek care, and when they do seek care, it’s often through helplines like ConnexOntario,” said Myran.

“The increases that we’re seeing in these contacts to the helpline — is it the tip of the iceberg of much larger increases in the number of people who are engaged in gambling in harmful patterns?”

Myran noted there has been a higher volume of gambling marketing since the privatization of betting in the province.

“I think that we need to think very carefully about who these ads are reaching and the messages that they’re conveying. And I think we need move to place restrictions on them because they’re right now occurring in venues that are widely seen by youth,” he said.

“When we see that the visits or the contacts have really gone up in young men, I think that this is exactly who’s being targeted by the advertisements and who’s going to be placing sports bets.”

The study further found that between the dawn of online gambling privatization in April 2022 and August of last year, the number of active player accounts per 100,000 people aged 15 or older increased from roughly 2,160 to more than 7,300 — a 239 per cent increase.

Myran added there are concerns around micro-betting and other types of gambling that are associated with higher risk of addiction.

“Let’s say that you bet on the outcome of the Super Bowl. It’s one bet that you’ve made. ... But you can now actually bet on events that occur within the game itself,” he said.

“That means that if you lose money, you might do what’s called loss chasing, where you try and re-wager it to win more, and it can really accelerate people into gambling disorders.”

Ultimately, the study’s findings underscore why gambling disorders need to be treated as a public health issue and treatment should be readily available, said Myran.

“Gambling can have really severe consequences to individuals. People who have gambling disorders are really at high risk of mental health conditions including self-harm and suicide,” said Myran.

“It can also have much broader impacts on families and communities around them,” he added. “I think that we have not adequately considered how some of the changes that have occurred may have much broader health implications for society.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.

Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press