CAMH calls for national gambling ad regulations

Added: March 27, 2024

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s biggest mental health teaching hospital, has suggested that national regulations limiting gambling advertising be created by the federal government.

CAMH urges the Ontario government to take action to restrict the availability of gambling in general and strengthen preventative initiatives. The hospital recommends a public health strategy that refocuses attention from gamblers to those who provide gambling.

The present Ontario strategy, according to CAMH, puts too much on the shoulders of the players and not enough on the industry. Scientist Dr. Nigel Turner of CAMH said that a public health strategy has to make providers responsible. He emphasized his worries about the deluge of sports gambling advertisements that will follow Canada’s 2021 introduction of single-game sports gambling.

The guidelines made by CAMH also center on shielding young people from the negative effects of gaming. They suggest that advertising for casinos shouldn’t focus on establishments where more than twenty-five percent of patrons are underage. Additionally, the hospital recommends that advertisements for gambling don’t make reference to the emotions associated with gambling or try to sway non-gamblers of any age.

The leader of CAMH’s treatment program for problem gambling and technology usage Megha Vatsya has noticed a rise in the number of young people seeking assistance for problems associated with sports gambling. She underlined how critical it is to address these issues, particularly with regard to young people who could access gambling even if it is prohibited for them.

Concerns about the normalizing sports gambling through advertising were raised by Bruce Kidd, an emeritus professor of sport and public policy at the University of Toronto and the driving force behind the movement to outlaw all sports betting advertising in Canada. He thinks it negatively alters the essence of sport to encourage betting.

The casino industry is dedicated to developing practical measures to safeguard players, according to Paul Burns, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian casino Association. He emphasized the industry’s cooperation with authorities and the scientific community to combat the negative effects of gambling.

Dr. Turner thinks that more work has to be done to shield people from the negative effects of gambling, notwithstanding some improvements. The latest restriction on sportsmen and celebrities appearing in gambling advertisements still has a loophole, he pointed out, since they may still feature in advertisements encouraging safe gambling.

CAMH, Canada