Faced with a 'torrent' of sports betting ads, this Canadian senator wants national rules to deal with them
'Get this done and get it done right,' Independent Senator Marty Deacon says
The number of advertisements encouraging people to bet on sporting events is both annoying and dangerous, a Canadian senator says.
Sports betting has been legal in Canada since 2021, but there are no rules around how it can be advertised.
Marty Deacon, who represents Ontario's Waterloo region as an Independent, has coached athletes or been involved with Team Canada at 15 Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games starting in 1994.
Deacon said sports betting ads, which often include celebrities or athletes, have become "very attractive, and addictive and sensational," which draws in young and vulnerable people.
It's why she has proposed legislation to create a national framework to regulate sports betting advertising, introducing Bill S-269 in the Senate on Tuesday.
Deacon said she supported a move to allow single sports betting in Canada in 2021 to better regulate the industry.
"Billions and billions of dollars were going into very unfortunate places and out of country, and so we were trying to legalize single betting so that Canadians could bet with Canadian companies, follow Canadian laws, and support the work of provinces and territories," Deacon told Josette Lafleur, guest host for CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition.
"Then what happened as a result of that is a really big torrent of advertising and promotions that is coming out in great, great quantities for all ages and on a regular and daily basis."
The legislation she's proposed would create a framework similar to how advertising is regulated for alcohol and tobacco.
Deacon said the rules could include:
- Limiting or banning celebrities and athletes from being in the ads.
- Limiting the number of ads that can be played or shown in a location or make, it so the ads couldn't be broadcast.
She said other countries have implemented rules around advertising and Canada could take lessons from them.
Fans 'being flooded' by ads
Ben Grandmont of Kitchener, Ont., said he bets on sports, but the number of ads he's started to see has gotten out of hand.
He said it was particularly bad when he was watching the Toronto Maple Leafs during the NHL playoffs this spring, when there were almost 8½ minutes of sports gambling advertising during Game 1 of the series against the Florida Panthers.
"It's like it's being flooded," Grandmont said of commercial breaks. "It was always on."
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Krista Duncan, also of Kitchener, said she doesn't personally see a lot of sports betting ads, but still believes they should be regulated in some way.
"When you compare it to drugs, alcohol and things where typically governments have put policies in place to protect children and vulnerable groups from getting involved in things that they're probably too young to understand, It's probably a good idea to continue to protect the community in that way," she said.
Norman Musengimana of Kingston, Ont., gets the ads on his phone or sees them when watching a game on TV, including soccer, with some players in other countries who have advertisements on their jerseys — something the 20 teams in the Premier League in the U.K. agreed in April they would do away with starting at the end of the 2025/26 season.
Musengimana said he'd like to see better rules in place for the ads.
"I think there's a lot we can learn from the tobacco industry," he said. "I think you can promote while at the same time showcasing the negative impact of what you are doing — just like when you are buying a packet of cigarettes, you will see that your lungs are going to probably get damaged if you keep doing it."
He said sports betting companies need to be socially responsible in promoting their products and remind people gambling can lead to financial problems.
Ads 'poison the culture of sport'
Earlier this year, the faculty of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto launched the campaign Ban Ads For Gambling.
The campaign enlisted noted Canadians — including hockey dad Karl Subban, retired Olympic speed-skater and cyclist Clara Hughes and children's entertainer Raffi — who speak out against gambling ads.
Bruce Kidd, a professor emeritus of sports and public policy at the University of Toronto, told CBC Toronto's Metro Morning in May that the ads are harmful because they exacerbate addiction and mental health problems.
He noted the American Psychological Association calls an addiction to gambling a disorder, and it's the only non-drug disorder the APA recognizes.
Kidd said the ads give an excitement around gambling "that encourages people to bet without consequence." Young people in particular are influenced by them, he said, and the ads "effectively groom kids to gamble.
"For me, who has been involved in sport all my life, they poison the culture of sport. They give a completely false sense of what sport is about," he said of the ads.
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Jeremy Luke, president and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, told CBC Sports that a betting "scandal" — involving match fixing or athletes betting on sports they participate in — is inevitable.
"I'd suggest it's as big, perhaps even bigger of an issue than doping is as far as the integrity of sport is concerned," Luke said.
"Many other countries are very, very far ahead as far as trying to deal with it and protect athletes. As we think about sport integrity issues and safety issues in Canada, this has to be top of mind."
Rules needed soon: Deacon
Deacon said she's heard from Canadians who are tired of all the advertisements. Some have said they worry about the impact it's having on their children.
"I have parents who are sending me messages saying, 'Please, please help me. I'm doing these things in my home to try to curb my children watching all of this but we need something much more global beyond our home,'" Deacon said.
"The talk of gambling and the segments of advertising have really, really increased at a rate that nobody anticipated. Did we anticipate some? Yes, but this is a consequence that's come so quickly and with such force that we have to do something about it now," she added.
"And the reality is you can't sit down in this country to enjoy sports without being exposed to a barrage of advertising."
A bill in the Senate goes through second and third reading, then back to the House of Commons for members of Parliament to weigh in on it.
Deacon said she knows that process will take time, so if the federal government wanted to propose its own legislation and get regulations in place sooner, she'd welcome that.
"Sooner would be wonderful, but get this done and get it done right. I would be very happy if we could be through and done in a year or less."
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With files from Jamie Strashin