Canadian MPs were scheduled to consider Bill S-211 this week, a measure that would create a national framework for sports-betting advertising as new data point to a sharp rise in gambling harm in Ontario.
The bill has already passed the Senate. Approval by the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage would send it to a third and final reading in the House, CBC News reported. Senator Marty Deacon led the bill through the Senate, while Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger is its House sponsor.
Bill S-211 would require the federal government to recognize the harms associated with online gambling and consult on tougher regulation. It does not itself set particular advertising restrictions. The legislation would also direct the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to examine whether its policies and regulations adequately reduce harm from the spread of sports-betting advertising.
Ontario and Alberta have opposed the proposal, arguing that it could interfere with provincial authority over advertising and reduce provincial gambling revenue. Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey said the province should retain responsibility for regulating gambling ads, while Alberta minister Dale Nally warned of a two-tier system and a threat to future revenue.
The debate comes as nearly 130,000 Ontarians show signs of problem gambling, up from roughly 43,000 in 2018. An Alberta Gambling Research Institute analysis, using Statistics Canada’s 2025 Canadian Community Health Survey and the Problem Gambling Severity Index, found Ontario’s problem-gambling rate had risen by 0.5 percentage points from 2018.
The number of Ontarians meeting measures including frequent gambling, financial losses and difficulty controlling their gambling has therefore roughly tripled. Carrie Shaw of the institute said problem gambling rose in Ontario six months after private online casinos opened in 2022, even as it declined across the rest of Canada.
Gambling-related suicides have also increased. The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario recorded an average of five a year between 2016 and 2021, with the annual figure tripling after 2022. Separate studies this year found a sharp increase in hospital emergency-department presentations involving gambling disorders and a 95.5% rise over a decade in gambling-related ConnexOntario calls by men and boys.
Ontario opened its regulated private online casino and sports-betting market in April 2022, becoming the first Canadian province to do so. The province has since been joined by Alberta. Ontario said it had spent $421 million on responsible-gambling education, research and treatment since 2018, including nearly $70 million in the previous year; iGaming Ontario has also introduced BetGuard, a single registration system for self-exclusion across regulated sites.
Advertising is a central concern for supporters of national action. A CBC and University of Bristol review of seven televised Canadian-team NHL playoff games this year counted about 3,000 gambling messages, or two to three a minute. Ninety-five percent carried no harm-reduction or age-restriction information. Gambling references appeared on rinks, jerseys and helmets as well as in commercial breaks.
A coalition of 12 mental-health organizations and 28 addictions researchers has asked Parliament for national action on advertising and gambling harm. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and Greo Evidence Insights have warned that greater legal gambling availability and advertising are likely to increase harms, particularly for young and other vulnerable people, while noting that Canada lacks a national or provincial system to monitor gambling-related harm comprehensively.
