An Ontario study has found that the rate of young men contacting the province’s mental health helpline for gambling-related problems has surged by more than 300% since the expansion of igaming, according to the Toronto Star.
The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, analyzed contacts with the mental health and addictions helpline ConnexOntario between January 2012 and September 2025.
Over that period, the service received more than 745,700 contacts, of which about 37,000 were related to gambling.
The study found that among men aged 15 to 24, the average monthly rate of gambling-related outreach per million people rose by 317% from before the launch of the government-run platform PlayOLG in 2015 to after the province opened the market to private online operators in April 2022.
