A national effort to create a uniform framework for sports betting advertising in Canada has restarted following a change in the country’s leadership.
Senator Marty Deacon introduced Bill S-211 this year after a previous iteration, S-269, failed when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned in January and ended the legislative session. The previous gambling advertising framework bill was introduced in 2023.
The legislation would require the Minister of Canadian Heritage to create the framework. The previous attempt passed the Senate in November 2024 and would have included restrictions on the number, scope and location of gambling advertisements.
The Senate last week restarted discussions, lasting less than 10 minutes, on Deacon’s legislation in the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications. It advanced to its third hearing in the Senate following multiple hearings on the issue last year.
“We need a common approach, a national standard similar to alcohol, similar to tobacco ads, that is not patchwork. And that’s why the government has to take the lead on this,” Deacon told the CBC last month.
Pushback on sports betting advertising
A Maru Public Opinion Poll last year reported that 59% of Canadians were in favour of a ban on gambling advertising. That came two years after Ontario opened up its online gambling market to commercial operators and flooded the market with ads. A Leger study released last month stated that 75% of Canadians who reported seeing sports betting ads thought there were too many.
However, such advertising has been waning, according to testimony offered during hearings on the advertising framework bills.
Research group ThinkTV said that out of 28,000 ads reviewed in 2024, 189 were gambling-related. In 2022, the group said there were 442 gambling-related ads. Meanwhile, the Canadian Gaming Association and nonprofit group Ad Standards also are working on their own advertising code for gambling operators.
The Canadian Football League, National Football League and National Hockey League all opposed Deacon’s legislation.
Canada sports betting market
Canadian lawmakers legalised single-event sports wagering in 2021, leading to Ontario, the fifth-largest jurisdiction in North America, opening up its gambling industry to commercial online sports betting and casino operators. It remains the only open commercial market in Canada, but Alberta is working toward a similar industry framework.
Ontario regulators opened the market with some of the strongest advertising guidelines in North America. Those rules were later fine-tuned, including a ban on using celebrities and athletes to promote gambling. Regulators fined multiple operators in the first year of operation for violating those advertising rules.
Canadian lawmakers are not the only ones in North America looking to alter the advertising landscape for sports betting. In the US, Senator Paul Tonko introduced a proposed federal ban on gambling advertising, although it has not gained traction in Congress.
Multiple regulators and industry stakeholders have argued that complete bans on gambling advertising would push bettors back to illegal operators.
Canada’s sports betting advertising proposal, led by Senator Marty Deacon, follows growing concern about the impact of ad saturation on consumers.