Paul Burns, president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, claims that the revelation made a week ago that forty Canadian senators wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney urging a complete ban on sports betting advertising, akin to that of tobacco, is not new.

Many of those same Senators have long advocated for a complete prohibition, so Burns is not shocked. Marty Deacon, one of those senators, is currently spearheading the National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act (Bill S-211), which is currently making its way through the House of Commons.

Long before the Ontario-regulated market went live in 2022, there was igaming advertising all around Canada. Currently, there are 48 licensed operators in Ontario, Burns continued.

CGA: Decrease in Gaming Ad Volume

Many of those same senators won't be impressed by any of that. Sen. Deacon is supporting a new bill that will establish uniform national guidelines for advertising. To develop a framework for limiting sports betting advertisements, the Minister of Canadian Heritage would confer with provinces, territories, Indigenous organizations, and other relevant parties.

From there, Sen. Deacon and Sen. Percy Downe would like to raise it a few points. Sen. Deacon has always favored that. Burns continued.

“I contend that the provinces have all of the controls and rules at their disposal through their gaming regulators,” he said. “That’s where it should reside. The provinces are in the best position.”

Tobacco-Related Ad Prohibition

For instance, in February 2024, over two years after the Ontario regulated market launched, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario published new changes to provincial regulations pertaining to igaming advertising. Cartoon characters, celebrities, role models, social media influencers, and performers "who would likely be expected to appeal to minors" would no longer be allowed to be used by operators.

Additionally, athletes, whether active or retired, could only be utilized in gaming advertisements to promote responsible gambling. Burns also mentioned that broadcasters and leagues have implemented policies.

“There’s a lot of oversight over advertising. There’s not a lot of research on the experience of advertising in Canada,” he said. “People point to research in other parts of the world. And while that may be informative, it’s not telling us what our market is, because every jurisdiction has very different attributes.

“The volume of advertising has plateaued and gone down,” he said, adding that research CGA has referenced shows that igaming represents two per cent of all advertising on television. On NHL broadcasts, igaming was around six per cent of television ads over the first few years of the regulated market, now it’s four per cent. The volume of advertising during the recent Blue Jays MLB World Series run was four per cent in terms of game time television ads, two per cent for Game 7, Burns said.

CGA: The Best-Equipped Provinces for Supervision

Burns continued, "The whole idea is to push people to websites that have controls, protections, and oversights." Sen. Downe claims that a constant barrage of advertisements makes phones into "pocket-sized casinos" for individuals of all ages.  The letter cites a CBC Marketplace article claiming that 20% of every sportscast is spent by sports fans viewing gambling advertisements, such as the logos of sports betting companies on basketball courts and hockey rink boards, which all contribute to the "normalization of gambling."

“I think operators (advertise) in a very responsible manner,” said Burns. “The whole regulatory regime plays a part in protecting players. It’s not one item where you are going to solve a problem – that if you ban advertising we won’t have problem gambling. That’s naive.”

age verification to prevent access by minors. Players' play is continuously monitored for risk, and if they deviate from their profile, appropriate action is taken. prohibiting advertising that promotes extra incentives. The CGA and industry stakeholders claim that all of this creates a protective infrastructure.

New Ad Standards Coming with Bill S-211

“That’s what we want everybody to look at, understanding the demographics of where people are viewing … there’s also still not the volume of advertising that people are saying there is,” said Burns. “We’re open to discussion. We participated with the AGCO. Ontario reacted quickly, they worked with industry and came up with a solution. This (Deacon) bill creates another layer of oversight, on top of what the provinces have been doing for 40 years and are best equipped to do.

“We are not cannabis, alcohol or tobacco as a product. We are very different than that. Most of those rules come through Health Canada … those are substances that people consume. No one has ever said that the use of tobacco is safe even in moderation. To say that (gaming) converges with tobacco is disingenuous and just wrong. People interact with gaming all the time without harm. This is inserting the federal government where they neither have the capacity nor the expertise.”

Political theater, then.

There are several regulations and oversight, according to Burns and the CGA. Canadian senators and national legislators claim that there isn't enough and that vulnerable adults and impressionable children are in danger. When Bill S-211 is signed into law, we'll have a better idea of where this is all going.