Poll suggests many Canadians worry about sports betting turning into problem gambling

OTTAWA — Canadians worry about sports betting becoming a problem for people they know and more than one in 10 of those surveyed said they placed a wager on a sporting event in the last year, a new poll suggests.

Seven in 10 people who responded to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute said they’re concerned about an increase in problem gambling as a result of widely available online sports betting.

Twenty-eight per cent of those polled said they’re worried someone they know personally is addicted to sports betting — a number that rose to 37 per cent among men between the ages of 18 and 34.

The vast majority of people who expressed concern about someone in their life becoming addicted — 81 per cent — said the person they’re worried about is male.

Just under half of those surveyed, 46 per cent, said they think the rise of online sports betting is a bad thing.

Only eight per cent said they think it’s good. The survey did note that legalized single-event sports betting does open new revenue streams to governments.

Forty-six per cent of the respondents who were betting on sports said they had used a responsible gambling tool, like a deposit limit or spend tracker.

The survey also looked to find out who is gambling on sports and found the highest rate of participation among men under age 55.

That echoes the results of a similar survey done last month in Ontario and Alberta.

Researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University found one in five sports bettors in Ontario and Alberta are men under age 30, and half of that group reported placing a bet once a week.

The research team argued that the harm caused by sports betting is a public health issue.

Last September, an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal called for restrictions on sports betting ads and warned that the proliferation of these ads is setting young people up for a future of problem gambling.

Both the CMAJ editorial and the researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University called for stricter federal regulation of sports betting ads.

TMU’s research reported that 77 per cent of young men are exposed to betting ads weekly, and 60 per cent of them said the ads influence their behaviour.

The ads are everywhere during this year’s NHL playoffs, for example, with gambling companies serving as major sponsors of TV coverage.

Ontario Independent Sen. Marty Deacon, who introduced legislation to regulate sports betting, said every sports broadcast is a reminder of how important it is for the government to act.

“I voted in favour of (legalizing) single-sport betting. I believed it was the right thing at the time, and I still do — if we get this right,” she said in an interview.

Canada legalized single-game sports betting in 2021, allowing provinces and territories to create their own regulations. Deacon said she agreed at the time that black market online betting was a major problem and that governments needed a way to recover the revenues.

What she didn’t anticipate, she said, was how the ads would proliferate and target young people in particular.

In her speech in the Senate last October, Deacon noted that the ads are being served up to people all over the country, even though Ontario is the only province that has opened sports betting to private companies.

Her bill received wide backing in the Senate and has passed second reading in the House of Commons with support from the Liberals. It is headed next to a study in the House heritage committee.

While the legislation does not prescribe how the government should restrict sports betting ads, it does call for a national approach to what is typically an issue of provincial and territorial jurisdiction.

Deacon said that could mean banning ads during sporting events, or for 10 minutes before and after a game or match. She said it could also mean emulating countries like Denmark that restrict the ads to after 1 a.m.

“If the government chose, when they took this, to do a full ban, then hallelujah. That’s up to them,” she said, likening the effort to trying “to get a horse back in the barn.”

Ontario banned the use of pro athletes in sports betting ads and marketing in 2024.

Angus Reid polled 1,803 people online between May 7-11.

The Canadian Research Insights Council, an industry organization that promotes polling standards, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2026.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press