Canada must enact strong, effective legislation to protect youth from gambling advertising. Minors are suffering harms from problem gambling despite age restrictions, argue authors in an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Since 2021, ads for sports betting have saturated sports broadcasts, constantly viewed by children. Gambling is normalized as a natural part of spectatorship at a young age. Even before single-game sports betting was legalized, a 2019 survey of Canadian students in grades 7–12 found about 4% of students expressed the urge to gamble despite their own negative consequences, and 2% had symptoms of gambling addiction.

Smartphones only make the problem worse.

“The legalization of online gambling (iGaming) in Ontario in 2022 turned any smartphone into a betting platform, compounding existing epidemics of technology and social media use addiction,” writes Dr. Shannon Charlebois, medical editor, CMAJ, with Dr. Shawn Kelly, a pediatrician and addictions medicine specialist, CHEO and the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario.

Problem gambling in minors is linked to an increased risk of suicide, substance use disorder, theft, weapons use, and assault. Most alarming is the increased risk of suicide, with a UK study showing a nine-fold risk in males and almost five-fold in females with problem gambling. A study of Norwegians from 2008 to 2021 found that suicide was the number one cause of death in people with problem gambling.

“Allowing glaring and ubiquitous promotion of sports betting is a willful mortgage of Canada’s future to the interests of private profit and tax revenue. Canadian jurisdictions should act to eliminate all commercials that promote sports betting during broadcasts where minors are likely to see them.”

The authors call for the federal government to begin by expediting Bill S-211, which will allow development of a national framework to regulate sports betting advertising and national standards to protect people who can be negatively affected.