Sports betting ad limits could be years away as bill clears committee

The federal government would have two years to develop a national framework for sports betting ads under a bill that cleared a House of Commons committee on Nov. 3.

The framework, set out in a report to Parliament, could limit how many ads run, where they appear and how athletes and celebrities are used. Any actual limits would come later.

“The report is the bill,” Conservative MP Andrew Lawton told the heritage committee. He said two years isn’t necessary or reasonable “if we’re looking at this as a serious health challenge for Canadians.”

Liberal MP David Myles, who moved to stretch the deadline from one year to two, said the government needs time to consult provinces and Indigenous groups. “We want to make sure we get it right,” he said.

The extra time comes as more people run into trouble with gambling. Nearly 130,000 Ontarians now show signs of problem gambling, about triple the number in 2018, CBC News reported on Oct. 21.

Gambling ads have been hard to miss since 2021, when Canada legalized betting on single games.

For Ottawa hockey fans, the pitch to gamble is part of the game.

In April 2025, the Ottawa Senators made ToonieBet their official online casino partner. ToonieBet’s logo shows up around Canadian Tire Centre and on the rink boards during the team’s TV broadcasts. Fans can even enter ToonieBet contests to win Sens gear and tickets.

In seven NHL playoff games involving Canadian teams this spring, gambling messages appeared two or three times a minute, a University of Bristol study done with CBC News found. About 95 per cent of them carried no warning about the risk or age limits.

In Ontario, figures from the chief coroner show gambling-related suicides have tripled since 2022, the year the province opened online gambling to private companies. Emergency department visits for gambling disorders in Ontario have roughly doubled since then, a September study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found.

Conservative MP Gabriel Hardy made a similar comparison at the committee. “We’ve seen what happened with tobacco. We have seen what happened with cannabis. We understand the urgency of protecting our young people’s mental health,” he said in French.

Liberal MP Fares Al Sou said the committee should stay “policy neutral.”

Amy Award, a director general at Canadian Heritage, told MPs the bill already lets the minister ban in-game betting ads and that writing it in “suggests a particular outcome.”

Lawton countered that the bill “literally uses the word banning” for celebrities and athletes.

The bill now goes back to the House for a final vote. Because MPs changed it, the Senate, which passed it in October 2025, must approve it again before it would become law, and the two-year clock starts.

Liberal MP Bardish Chagger who represents Waterloo and sponsors the bill in the House, hopes it eventually leads to a ban on gambling ads during live sports.

In a February speech in the House, she said her constituents have raised concerns about “the abundance of advertisements, which now often overshadow the sport itself.”

Groups such as the Canadian Mental Health Association support the bill, but the Ontario and Alberta governments oppose it.

Dale Nally, Alberta’s minister responsible for online gambling, called it “another case of federal overreach into provincial jurisdiction.”

Roger Mahdi, a project management student at Algonquin College, thinks betting ads should be treated like cigarette ads.

“There are heavy restrictions on smoking and advertisements,” he said.

Mahdi says people should be free to gamble. He just wants them to know what they’re getting into.

“Show the risk of betting and gambling and make sure they understand what is at stake,” he said.