Ontario looking ‘very, very closely’ at rise in sports betting, gambling commercials

Shortly after voting down an attempt by the Ontario Liberals to ban online gambling commercials, the Ford government says it is seriously considering how to handle an explosion in betting ads.

April, was defeated by the government in mid-May on second reading.

But Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming Stan Cho said he understood the concerns and was weighing how the government could move forward with stricter rules.

“It’s a growing issue, so there’s no sugar coating the fact that more people are gaming online, specifically young men,” he told Global News.

“That’s precisely the reason we regulated the market.”

The government has touted a ban on celebrities appearing in gambling commercials, except those promoting responsible gaming. Officials also point to enhanced self-exclusion measures.

“There is absolutely more that needs to be done,” Cho conceded.

“What we learned over the years with tobacco and smoking was that the advertising was a key part of reducing that — it’s one step that we can take,” she said.

“When we introduced and legalized cannabis availability, we didn’t allow for advertising. Problem gambling now is at a point, a similar level, to some of those issues. The responsible thing would be to take this step.”

Data agrees with both Cho and Fairclough that gambling rates have increased dramatically in the province in recent years.

A study released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal earlier this year found people calling a gambling helpline in Ontario were up 300 per cent since the province allowed private online gambling.

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.

While Cho said there was more to do, he said the government wanted to move slowly and carefully.

“We’re also looking at further measures around advertising, around guards, but we can’t move recklessly or without thought,” he said.

“We are very much leaders not just in the country, but in the world when it comes to online gambling. We will be looking at advertising very, very closely over the summer.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/11870839/ford-government-problem-gambling/