Experts, Liberal MP hope for full ban on sports betting ads as advocates cite mental health decline

Sports betting advertising in Ontario, Alberta and eventually Quebec could soon be limited by a bill introduced by a senator who points to findings of increased addiction and gambling-related harms and suicides in Ontario in the five years since single-game betting was legalized federally.

Sen. Marty Deacon introduced Bill S-211 in May 2025. It’s now before the House standing committee on Canadian heritage for study.

“I hope this legislation gets to a point where we can ban (sports betting ads) completely across this country,” said Liberal MP Michael Coteau.

His remarks came after testimony from Deacon and Liberal MP Bardish Chagger, sponsors of the bill in the Senate and House of Commons respectively. 

Gambling-related ER visits doubled in Ontario

In her opening statement to the committee, Deacon cited a University of Toronto study which found that visits to the emergency room related to gambling disorders in Ontario had nearly doubled since the 2021 legalization of single-event sports betting and 2022 expansion of private online gambling markets in the province.

“Gambling harms are particularly insidious because it’s hard for friends and family to pick up on this,” Deacon said.

“There is a natural friction with substance addiction, you have to experience the urge, physically move to go to a store or a dealer. For a gambling addiction it takes literal seconds between seeing an ad and placing a bet at one of the casinos in our pockets.

“We can do so on the bus, out at a bar, or even here in this room right now.”

Chagger referenced multiple studies about young men and young boys are disproportionately affected by sports betting and addictions in Ontario. Gambling-related calls to ConnexOntario, the province’s 24-hour mental health and addictions helpline, surged by 161 per cent among males aged 15 to 24 in the last five years, since Ontario introduced a private online market in 2022.

“Young fans should be inspired by athletes, the competition and the values that sports promote,” Chagger said. “Gambling should not be an expected part of being a sports fan.” 

Legalization should not mean normalizationMP Bardish Chagger

Eleven briefs were submitted ahead of the meeting on the proposed legislation from various experts and organizations for and against the bill. Renze Nauta, a researcher at the public policy think-tank Cardus, suggested three amendments to the bill, including that it be amended to ban sports betting advertisements completely.

“Or at the very least, ban them during sports broadcasts when children are most likely to be watching, as the United Kingdom does,” Nauta said. 

Provinces disagree with bill

Ontario and Alberta are the two Canadian provinces where dozens of private commercial operators including FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM can operate in an expanded betting market. The rest of Canada currently restricts online gambling and sports betting to single provincial government entities. 

Both oppose the federal bill.

In letters to the federal government, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally said the bill creates a two-tier regulatory system and threatens future provincial revenues, and Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey said that the province should be left to regulate ads.

WATCH | Sports gambling ads are everywhere. There’s push to change that:

Sports gambling ads are everywhere. There’s a push to change that

Federal MPs are moving forward with a bill to restrict sports betting ads in Canada. It comes as new data shows that the number of problem gamblers is on the rise in Ontario.

Committee member and Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux says he cannot support the bill in its current form due to its contradictions with existing legislation in Quebec. Currently, the province has its own independent oversight of gambling through the Mise-o-jeu platform, but recently sworn-in Quebec premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said during the election campaign that he would expand the province’s regulated market for online gambling.

“When I hear that the gambling industry itself through different provinces brings up concerns and does not agree to the idea, I think that should already bring a red flag,” Champoux said.

“Unfortunately, it is an interference in Quebec and in the province’s jurisdiction.”

MP for Drummond Martin Champoux speaks with reporters in the Foyer of the House of Commons, Tuesday March 24, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Kevin Desjardins, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, recommended that the federal government work with provincial regulators and stakeholders across the country before moving forward.

“Before Parliament creates another layer of regulation, we believe it should first ask what specific problem are we trying to solve that isn’t already addressed by [existing] mechanisms,” Desjardins said.

Desjardins concluded his testimony by adding that while the Canadian Association of Broadcasters supports responsible advertising and meaningful consumer protection, Canadian broadcasters are competing with global platforms that do not face the same restrictions and “duplication and unintended harm” in the proposed legislation “should be avoided.”

Canadian heritage committee was supposed to meet on Thursday to vote on the bill, but the meeting was adjourned due to Conservative committee members introducing two other debates on Canada’s close association with the EU and a motion to bring a report to the House of Commons on findings related to attacks on places of worship.

Liberal MP Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba motioned to adjourn as he had questions for some of the witnesses who had left at that point, 30 minutes after the meeting’s intended end time. 

The committee is set to next go through the bill clause by clause on Tuesday.