Globe editorial: Ontario must fold on glitzy gambling ads

One thing never seen in alcohol advertisements – because it’s illegal – is a pitch for the fun and thrills to be had from knocking back a few drinks. But there is no such prohibition for gambling ads in Ontario, which extol the fist-pumping good times of doubling down and the life-changing, wide-eyed wonder of winning big jackpots.

That fantasy world is at odds with the realities of gambling. There are more than 300,000 Canadians reported to be at risk of gambling-related harms. Older adults, people living on a low income, people with substance-use dependencies and those with mental health issues are all at increased risk of harm from gambling, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario.

Ontario introduced new rules for gambling ads this year to better protect the province’s youth. No longer can Wayne Gretzky, the Great One himself and a spokesman for BetMGM, declare that “every bet with BetMGM has the potential for greatness.”

Those new rules are a step in the right direction. But more needs to be done: Ontario should regulate gambling advertising according to the same standards that alcohol advertising is regulated in Canada.

When the province opened the door to private gambling companies in 2022, a slew of advertising followed, with more than 70 operators now competing for a share of the market.

With the onslaught of ads has come a projected increase of nearly 50 per cent between fiscal 2023 and 2025 in the annual revenue the province expects to book from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Gambling has become such a cash cow for the province that revenue from the Lottery and Gaming is projected to overtake revenue from the LCBO in the current fiscal year, according to the provincial budget. Revenue from the Lottery and Gaming income is expected to reach $2.6-billion, jumping ahead of the projected $2.4-billion from the LCBO.

Taking in more money from gambling than from alcohol is reason for pause. That revenue represents lost wagers from the pockets of Ontarians.

A generation ago, regulators struggled to deal with the ill effects of video-lottery terminals. Today, we all carry around what are essentially electronic gambling machines in our pockets that can be used to make wagers at any hour of the day. That should be ringing alarm bells louder than a million slot machines.

Ontario has said it wanted to regulate the “grey market” of unlicensed operators that has existed in Canada for years.

New rules proposed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario that came in to effect earlier this year banning athletes, celebrities, social media influencers and others from appearing in advertising for internet gambling in Ontario are a useful step forward.

But more regulations are needed. Some organizations, including the Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario, want to see a total prohibition for advertising for online gambling.

At a minimum, the province should adopt the recommendation from Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and apply the same standards to gambling advertising that are set out in the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s code for broadcast advertising of alcoholic beverages.

According to the Centre for Addiction’s gambling policy framework, that would mean commercial messages for gambling should not “attempt to influence non-gamblers of any age to gamble; imply directly or indirectly that social acceptance, social status, personal success, or business or athletic achievement may be acquired, enhanced or reinforced through gambling; imply directly or indirectly that gambling is, in any way, essential to the enjoyment of an activity or an event; refer to the feeling and effect caused by gambling.”

Those are all sound principles. Applying them would mean gambling advertising could no longer promote the woo-hoo! good times of winning large jackpots, among other exclusions. (To be fair, Ontario Lottery and Gaming runs ads warning of the importance of responsible gambling.)

The harms of gambling addiction – depression and suicide, bankruptcy, family breakup, domestic abuse, assault, fraud, theft and homelessness – make it all too clear that standards for gambling advertising should be at least as stringent as those that apply to alcohol.