Canadian Senator Wants to Remove, Restrict Sports Gambling Ads

Senator Marty Deacon is confident that sports betting ads are leading to societal harm, especially in young people. Now, he wants to see his Bill S-211 passed through.

The proposed piece of legislation seeks to eliminate all commercials that promote sports betting, whether this happens during broadcasts, in physical venues, or online.

Gambling Ads Need to Be Revised, a Vociferous Senator Argues

According to the senator, a lot of the efforts have gone into launching and regulating sports gambling as an activity, but much less attention has been paid to how to keep people safe, with ads running rampant.

Senator Deacon’s proposal stands to reason, and it draws from similar and successful pieces of legislation overseas. For starters, he proposes banning celebrities and athletes from being featured in gambling ads.

He also calls for further restrictions on what ads can be displayed and at what times, including a ban on broadcasting gambling ads. At the same time, the senator calls for a unified response to gambling ads in general.

“We need a common approach, a national standard similar to alcohol, similar to tobacco ads, that is not patchwork. And that’s why the government has to take the lead on this,” Sen. Deacon adds.

He is not alone in outlining sports gambling ads as a threat to the well-being of young men and women. According to Dr Shannon Charlebois from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that such ads are indeed harmful.

Speaking to CBC News, Dr Charlebois said: “The typical story that I see in the clinic is a 13- or 14-year-old boy who has borrowed dad’s credit card, or mom’s credit card, engaged in some online wagering and lost a significant amount of money,” highlighting the dangers to those who are incredibly young and vulnerable.

Young People Exposed to Gambling Believe It’s Normal

Dr Charlebois reiterated a popular warning – that by being exposed to gambling ads, children begin to understand the activity as something “normal” and something to partake in.

“What’s very dangerous about this for children is that it’s normalizing a known harmful behaviour during an impressionable stage. And it’s really appealing in particular to youth who are genetically, biologically predisposed to enjoy risk-taking,” she explained.

Sen. Deacon is of the same mind, arguing that the combination of smartphones and devices that have made betting an instant affair and the influx of incentives to gamble produce societal harms that need to be addressed on the legislative level and swiftly.