Canada’s attempt to federally regulate betting ads advances
The Canadian Senate has given fast-track approval to a senator’s latest attempt to establish national regulatory guidelines for online sports betting advertising.
Sen. Marty Deacon’s S-211 was expedited at the committee stage earlier this month and approved without opposition via voice vote on the full chamber floor on Tuesday. It will now head before the House of Commons, where the same effort under a different bill (S-269) hit a roadblock last year amid upheaval in the legislature and the ultimate resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Bill would mandate that Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage must consult and collaborate with various stakeholders to establish a national framework on sports betting advertising.
The framework would focus on identifying ways to regulate betting ads in Canada, with a view to restricting their use, number, scope or location. It would also compel the Canadian government to identify measures to promote research and intergovernmental information-sharing and form national standards for the prevention and diagnosis of harmful gambling and addiction.
‘Sober second thought’ years later
Canada legalized single-event sports betting in 2021 and Ontario launched the country’s first regulated open online gambling market less than a year later in April 2022.
Those events precipitated a notable increase in sports betting marketing across the country, even with Ontario’s gambling regulator limiting advertising through measures such as a ban on public marketing of welcome promotions and restrictions on the use of athletes.
Last year, Deacon told her fellow lawmakers that they had “the privilege of sober second thought,” suggesting that nobody had considered quite how prevalent sports betting advertising would become as a result of expanded legalization.
“We have good benefit of foresight here,” she said on Tuesday. “We can see where this is headed, but we’re deciding to steer straight toward that iceberg anyway if we do nothing. This is a problem we bear responsibility for.”
Support for the bill has largely come from problem gambling, mental health and youth organizations, as well as groups outside Ontario who are irritated by seeing adverts for Ontario-licensed sportsbooks in their own provinces. The Canadian Gaming Association, Canadian broadcast organizations and multiple major sports leagues have pushed back against the plan for federal oversight.
Canada looks to US
In her comments, Deacon argued that the North American big four leagues would survive without issue if betting adverts in Canada were scaled back.
Bill S-211’s Senate approval came the same day that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told The Pat McAfee Show that he supports the idea of U.S. federal oversight of gambling advertising. Meanwhile, lawmakers in several states have tried to tackle the issue of gambling ads with various bills filed in 2025.
“I appreciate that this is largely up to the U.S. to handle, given that’s where the majority of these teams are located and broadcast from, but there is a push in the States to scale back these ads as well,” said Deacon. “And it goes without saying that now is not the time to throw up our hands in defeat because the U.S. is doing something.”
A long road ahead
S-211 is merely the vehicle for establishing a federal framework on betting ads, and the actual content of any guidelines is still up for discussion. Deacon cited possible measures such as a whistle-to-whistle ban on betting adverts during game broadcasts across Canada, banning sponsored pre- and in-game shows that focus on betting odds and prohibiting in-app betting promotions during games.
Even if the bill were to pass the House and gain Royal Assent to become law, any changes would take time. The Minister responsible would have one year from the date the Act came into effect to prepare a report setting out the national framework and a strategy for implementing it.
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