Ban Ads for Sports Gambling

An amendment to the Criminal Code was made through a federal Private Members Bill C-218 in mid-2021. The Code prohibits gaming but provides an exception to a province which controls and manages gambling, and before 2021 that took the form of lotteries. The amendment permits gambling on sports games, while still requiring provinces to 'control and manage' these activities. Since then there has be a proliferation of ads for online gambling for sports games. Recently Ontario banned ads for celebrity and athlete endorsement of single game online betting, but many think that there needs to be more regulation of this advertising.

The campaign to ban ads for sports betting, supported by the United Church of Canada is not part of a national campaign, but they are supporting churches to encourage individuals to write letters to their member of parliament. A sample letter is found here.

Additional information can be found in a recent Broadview magazine article.