published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/a> in March, gambling-related outreach to Ontario\u2019s mental health helpline from young men increased by more than 300 per cent after Ontario\u2019s expansion of private online gambling, and active online gambling accounts per capita rose by 239 per cent in under three years.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard not to see why these numbers are rising, with gambling and betting websites persistently advertising across the internet and on TV. During the 2025 NHL playoff finals between Edmonton and Florida, University of Bristol researchers found that gambling logos and ads were shown on average 3.5 times per minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of TV commercials, we see a lot of ads now for online sportsbooks, but we also see a lot of ads for online casinos, and the online casinos are the more profitable arm of online gambling. At the same time, with online gambling, we\u2019re seeing a lot more young people gambling and particularly young men,\u201d said Luke Clark, director of the Centre for Gambling Research at UBC.<\/p>\n
In April 2022, Ontario opened its online gambling market to private companies, as opposed to the rest of Canada, whose online gambling sites are government-owned, like B.C.\u2019s PlayNow. Since Ontario\u2019s market opened, due to Ontario\u2019s hold over Canadian media, most of Canada is bombarded with ads regardless of provincial regulation.<\/p>\n
Additionally, long gone are the days of finding a (often unreliable) bookie to place bets on your favourite team, or travelling across town to use slot machines at the casino, as now a full spectrum of casinos, sports betting, and newly emerging prediction markets are just a click away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe win-loss cycle is accelerated for folks where they can continue placing new bets and can take actions at any time of day, any place that has access to [Wi-Fi],\u201d said Extine. They can end up in a situation in a short amount of time that has very drastic effects financially and on their lives. And then, what can come with that is again, that reaction to start to re-engage, to get the winning back or to, you know, to win back losses.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 2013 release of the DSM-5, Gambling Disorder was recognized as a behavioural addiction, which was a big deal in the psychology space as the disorder was being taken seriously as a public health problem, said Clark. With the relatively new influx of advertising along with the ease of use, researchers are still working to catch up on determining the effects of the ever-developing world of gambling, and the federal government is exploring legislative options to better protect the public from the harms of problem gambling.<\/p>\n
In terms of treatment, it\u2019s complex, says Extine. With gambling disorder also comes the underlying factors \u2013 trauma, depression, anxiety \u2013 that can complement and exacerbate the addiction.<\/p>\n
As a result, Extine says they have to take an individualized approach to treatment, like some drug rehabilitation programs, where people attend group and solo therapy sessions, they receive integrated clinical treatment, family-focused reintegration, and financial stabilization and recovery planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cOften, primarily, [gambling is] the issue that\u2019s front and centre, that\u2019s leading them to treatment. And then it\u2019s common that once a person reaches out for one issue that appears most acute, it\u2019s an opportunity through professional help, through working with a psychiatrist or physician or others to have a more in-depth assessment,\u201d said Extine. \u201cIf you treat the depression, the gambling addiction won\u2019t go away on its own. But if we\u2019re going to really look at someone making strides in their life, if we\u2019re going to make some gains with their gambling, we also are going to need to treat the depression.<\/p>\n
Since the program launched, they\u2019ve seen an influx of people. Though the new environment around gambling especially affects younger men, Extine says they\u2019ve seen a diverse group of people making their way through the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a time when laying a bet has never been easier, one of the biggest private inpatient treatment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-856056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}