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Canadian lawmakers continue to hear testimony from responsible gambling advocates, broadcasters and the gaming industry as they consider the fate of federal regulation that would establish a national framework for regulating the promotion of sports betting.
The Senate Transport and Communications Committee will hear from Paul Burns, president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, among other witnesses, on Tuesday (October 1), followed on Wednesday with committee members going clause-by-clause through Bill S-269, a last chance for committee members to propose amendments before deciding whether to send the bill to the full Senate for their consideration.
Among other things, the legislation would require the minister of Canadian heritage to create a national framework for sports-betting advertisements that would restrict the number of commercials and ban the use of celebrities and athletes to promote wagering in Canada.
Sponsored by Ontario Senator Marty Deacon and introduced in June 2023, S-269 tries to extend the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s (AGCO) ban on celebrities and athletes appearing in ads for gambling sites across the country, while establishing a broader set of restrictions.
Deacon supports Ontario’s advertising restrictions, telling the CBC they were a step in the right direction, but she would have liked to see them go further.
Karin Schnarr, the AGCO’s CEO and registrar, submitted a five-page letter to the committee outlining the province’s advertising and marketing restrictions but did not comment on S-269.
The committee held two initial hearings on the bill in June followed by two more last week.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Brian Dijkema, president of the Cardus Institute think tank, urged lawmakers to amend the bill to implement a complete ban on all sports-betting advertising and gambling advertising at large.
Dijkema admitted that a total ban might be a heavy lift for lawmakers, so he asked the committee to consider two alternatives, including moving toward an advertising ban during live event broadcasts, or banning in-game wagering.
He also called for a portion of sports-betting revenue to be redirected into research, prevention and treatment of gambling addiction and to improve gambling prevention messaging.
“A player should not spend more than 1 percent of pre-tax monthly household income gambling,” Dijkema told the committee. “In Ontario, the average monthly spend is $283. This could be one player with more than one account, but if it is just one player account that accounts for about 3.2 percent of the average monthly household income in Canada.”
Matthew Young, chief research officer with Greo Evidence Insights, informed the committee that their research found 7 percent of Canadians now meet the criteria for problem gambling, while that percentage rises to 15 percent among those 18 to 34.
“The volume of advertisements repeatedly comparing sports with betting has normalized gambling, leading to people thinking betting is an integral part of their enjoyment of sports and being a sports fan,” Young said.
Canada legalized single-event sports betting in 2021 by lifting a federal ban that formerly restricted legal sports wagering to multiple or parlay bets.
So far, only Ontario has established a regulated market allowing multiple private operators to offer online sports betting and casino games with other provinces, limiting their legal markets to government-owned lottery corporations.
Earlier this year, Alberta government officials confirmed plans to replicate much of Ontario’s private online gaming model as part of overhauling its own industry, but specific details have yet to be released.
Speaking to the Senate committee, Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), described the bill as “premature and an unnecessary overreach into the work that is being undertaken by provincial regulators”.
Desjardins cautioned lawmakers that having multiple layers of regulatory frameworks on gambling advertising “will create confusion and not allow provincial regulators to make the changes they deem necessary as they see the evolution of the market in their own jurisdictions”.
The group representing more than 700 Canadian broadcasters was joined in opposition to the proposed national advertising framework by the Canadian Football League (CFL).
“While Bill S-269 may be well-intentioned, we do not agree a national framework is required to regulate the advertising of sports betting in Canada,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a letter to the Senate committee.
Ambrosie noted that sports-betting advertising represents a small percentage of the CFL’s overall partnership and media business, yet the league continues to voluntarily limit the volume of sports-betting operators that are visible in-game.
He said the CFL will continue to consider “more formal policies to manage sportsbook advertising volume and frequency”.
“We strongly believe that the measures we, and other sports leagues, have put in place support our contention that a national framework, as envisioned by bill S-269, is not necessary,” Ambrosie said.
So far, the CFL has been the only North American professional sports league to speak out against S-269. But debate over Deacon’s bill comes at a time when lawmakers in the U.S. and Australia are also considering restrictions or bans on sports-betting advertising, as already imposed by various European countries.
Earlier this month, U.S. Representative Paul Tonko of New York and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both Democrats, introduced the so-called Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every (SAFE) Bet Act, aimed at establishing minimum federal standards for sports-betting advertising and reducing gambling addiction in the United States.
Among the proposed restrictions on advertising, U.S. state regulators would be required to ensure that all sports-betting advertising is prohibited between the hours of 8am and 10pm, as well as during live sporting events.
“We believe the best approach is to allow the provincial authorities to work together and to learn from each other rather than imposing a regulatory framework on them,” Desjardins said of Canada’s proposed national restrictions.
