Online sportsbooks advertise heavily in Canada, which has led to consternation among many politicians and anti-gambling advocates. A bill that recently passed the Ontario Senate would curb the proliferation of sports betting ads and implement specific guardrails in the province.
Building a Framework
Ontario launched a competitive online sports betting and iGaming industry in 2022. However, since then, residents of the province have been inundated with advertisements for betting platforms, leading the Senate to initially pass S-269, a measure aimed at limiting sports betting advertisements in late 2024.
Unfortunately for those who sponsored the bill, the timing was disastrous, as Justin Trudeau had recently resigned his position as prime minister, which ushered in a new session of Parliament and thus doomed any bill in progress that had not received Royal Assent, including S-269.
The latest iteration of a bill to regulate sports betting advertising comes from Ontario Senator Marty Deacon, who is the sponsor of Bill S-211, also known as the “National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act.” Deacon regrets not implementing advertising guardrails concurrently with the launch of the competitive online sports betting industry in 2022.
“Honorable senators, this is a problem we bear,” said Deacon during the Senate hearing last year. “We bear responsibility for it. I include myself in this, as I voted for Bill C-218 (the single-game sports betting bill). Getting the bill before us to the floor of the other place (the House) will go a long way in trying to make this right.”
Taking it to the House
Senator Deacon’s plea resonated with his senate colleagues, and the upper chamber passed Bill S-211 on the third reading in a voice vote with no dissent uttered. The bill’s language, as it is currently written, is to create a framework that would implement guidelines and limitations on sports betting advertising.
But chief among them would be to regulate such ads “with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the number, scope, or location, or a combination of these, of the advertisements or to limiting or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting.”
The bill has now advanced to the House of Commons, where it requires a second and third reading to become law. Liberals now hold a majority in the lower chamber, and it has been reported that the bill has substantial support.
Karim Bardeesy, a Liberal MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, who has been openly critical of sports betting, said last week, “The least we can do right now in the House is to pass the bill, send it to committee, and give it the consideration it deserves as we take on this scourge.”
Senator Deacon stated he was careful to limit, and not prohibit, sports betting advertising to avoid what would undoubtedly become a quagmire of legal issues surrounding the ban.
“And while a ban was my initial aspiration, approach, and dream, we decided it was prudent here to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good: to ask for reasonable guardrails rather than seeking a ban that could lead to years of court battles.”
