A ban on the use of athletes and celebrities in online gambling ads in Ontario, including for sports, is set to take effect next month. But some advocates are calling for a nationwide ban on sports betting commercials to better protect children and youth in Canada.
Gambling in sports is not new. But as soon as the federal government legalized single-game sports betting in 2021, the flood gates opened for advertisements to play during hockey games, on social media applications and on the internet.
Former Olympian Bruce Kidd, who is also a professor emeritus of sport policy at the University of Toronto, told Global News that research from multiple countries has shown young people are persuaded by these ads into wanting to gamble.
