Ad Ban or Bust for Canadian Senators, CGA President Says
Posted on: November 30, 2025, 09:59h.
Last updated on: November 30, 2025, 10:03h.
- CGA President and CEO responds to push from Canadian Senators to ban sports betting advertising
- New bill calling for national framework on advertising closer to becoming law
- CGA contends protection oversight and controls already are in place, shown in provinces like Ontario
According to Canadian Gaming Association President and CEO Paul Burns, there’s no new news in the announcement a week ago that 40 Canadian Senators sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for a tobacco-style full ban on sports betting advertising.
Burns isn’t surprised because many of those same Senators have always wanted a full ban. One of those senators, Marty Deacon, is already quarterbacking Bill S-211, the National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act, now working its way through the House of Commons.
There’s been igaming advertising across Canada for years, long before the Ontario regulated market went live in 2022, now with 48 licensed operators there, Burns added.
CGA: Gaming Ad Volume Down
None of that is going to phase many of those same Senators. That new act Sen. Deacon is sponsoring will put down new guardrails on advertising, a standardized national approach. The Minister of Canadian Heritage would consult with provinces, territories, Indigenous organizations and other stakeholders to create a framework for restricting sports betting ads.
Sen. Deacon, and Sen. Percy Downe, want to push it up a few points from there. That’s what Sen. Deacon has always preferred. Burns added.
“I contend that the provinces have all of the controls and rules at their disposal through their gaming regulators,” he said. “That’s where it should reside. The provinces are in the best position.”
Tobacco-Like Ad Ban
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario for example released new amendments to provincial standards around igaming advertising in February 2024 – almost two years after the Ontario regulated market went live. Operators would no longer be able to use cartoon figures, role models, celebrities, social media influencers, or entertainers “who would likely be expected to appeal to minors”.
Also, active or retired athletes couldn’t be used in igaming advertising except for the purposes of advocating for responsible gambling practices. Leagues and broadcasters have also put policies in place, Burns added.
“There’s a lot of oversight over advertising. There’s not a lot of research on the experience of advertising in Canada,” he said. “People point to research in other parts of the world. And while that may be informative, it’s not telling us what our market is, because every jurisdiction has very different attributes.
“The volume of advertising has plateaued and gone down,” he said, adding that research CGA has referenced shows that igaming represents two per cent of all advertising on television. On NHL broadcasts, igaming was around six per cent of television ads over the first few years of the regulated market, now it’s four per cent. The volume of advertising during the recent Blue Jays MLB World Series run was four per cent in terms of game time television ads, two per cent for Game 7, Burns said.
CGA: Provinces Best Equipped for Oversight
The whole idea is to push people to websites that have controls, protections and oversights, Burns added. Sen. Downe contends people of all ages are exposed to a stream of ads that turn their phone into a “pocket-sized casino”. The letter references a story on CBC Marketplace that says sports fans spend 20 per cent of every sportscast watching gambling advertising, which includes sports betting operator logos on hockey rink boards and basketball courts, all of which contributes to the “normalization of gambling”.
“I think operators (advertise) in a very responsible manner,” said Burns. “The whole regulatory regime plays a part in protecting players. It’s not one item where you are going to solve a problem – that if you ban advertising we won’t have problem gambling. That’s naive.”
Age verification so minors don’t get access. Monitoring player’s play for risk on a continual basis, where actions are taken if they get outside their profile. Banning advertising around bonus incentivization. All of this builds an infrastructure of protection, according to the CGA and industry stakeholders.
New Ad Standards Coming with Bill S-211
“That’s what we want everybody to look at, understanding the demographics of where people are viewing … there’s also still not the volume of advertising that people are saying there is,” said Burns. “We’re open to discussion. We participated with the AGCO. Ontario reacted quickly, they worked with industry and came up with a solution. This (Deacon) bill creates another layer of oversight, on top of what the provinces have been doing for 40 years and are best equipped to do.
“We are not cannabis, alcohol or tobacco as a product. We are very different than that. Most of those rules come through Health Canada … those are substances that people consume. No one has ever said that the use of tobacco is safe even in moderation. To say that (gaming) converges with tobacco is disingenuous and just wrong. People interact with gaming all the time without harm. This is inserting the federal government where they neither have the capacity nor the expertise.”
So, political theatre, then.
Burns and the CGA said there are lots of rules and oversight. National politicians and Canadian Senators say there isn’t enough, that impressionable youth and vulnerable adults are at risk. We’ll get more clarity on where this is all heading when Bill S-211 becomes law.
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