{"id":629072,"date":"2026-09-19T00:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T00:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629072\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T00:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T00:48:22","slug":"i-have-a-10-year-old-boy-my-battle-against-online-gambling-has-already-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629072\/","title":{"rendered":"I have a 10-year-old boy. My battle against online gambling has already begun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A Canadian study found a surge in emergency-room visits for gambling-related disorders among younger male patients after Ontario’s launch of private online betting platforms.Ian Willms\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

A new Canadian study has found that emergency-room visits for gambling-related disorders have almost doubled since Ontario opened the door to private online gambling and sports betting platforms. Men and boys between the ages of 10 and 29 account for the biggest increase, my colleague Jennifer Yang reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not many people end up in the ER for problem gambling. Those who do usually also have mental health or substance abuse diagnoses, or both. But the study finds a clear spike in those visits among younger male patients. For the 10 to 29-year-old cohort, they were up more than 150 per cent. <\/p>\n

The results are raising eyebrows among doctors because the trend is worrying, and this is rare, high-quality data about the impact that online gambling can have on someone\u2019s health. <\/p>\n

And the question is, what does this surge in ER visits say about what online gambling is doing to the much, much larger number of people who have taken up betting on their phones?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question I hope to never be able to answer from firsthand experience. <\/p>\n

As the parent of a 10-year-old boy, my battle against online gambling has already started. My kid does not have a smartphone, and we\u2019ll delay him having one for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

But we watch Blue Jays games together as a family. At this point in the season, my kid has seen online sports-betting ads so often that he can recite one particular commercial word for word.<\/p>\n

My husband and I have talked to him about the risks and harms of online gambling, both financial and psychological. We\u2019ve also discussed how live bets \u2013 placing wagers while a game is under way \u2013 can be even more dangerous and addictive.<\/p>\n

Every time a sports-betting ad comes up, we joke about how slick it is, how many times we\u2019ve already seen it and how betting remains a very bad idea.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also started to introduce my kid to the concept of investing. We\u2019ve let him put some pretend money in a stock of his choosing (he picked Sony). Once in a while, we monitor the stock price and how his fake investment is doing. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll introduce the concept of portfolio diversification a little later. For now, I just want him to understand the difference between putting money in a stock and betting against the house.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s following along so far. But one day we\u2019ll have to get him a phone that connects to the internet. And it\u2019s virtually guaranteed that some of his buddies at school will get into sports betting. <\/p>\n

Am I confident he won\u2019t get sucked in? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

I would love to hear how other parents are tackling this. If you\u2019d like to reach out to share tips and strategies, you can reach me at: ealini@globeandmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d also love to know more about whether and how sports betting has affected you or your family. If you can spare a minute, please complete this short online survey<\/a> \u2013 we\u2019ll keep your answers anonymous.<\/p>\n

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Are you reading this newsletter on the web or did someone forward the e-mail version to you? If so, you can sign up for On Money here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erica\u2019s personal finance reading list<\/p>\n

What the U.S. Fed rate hike means for your mortgage<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, just delivered its first interest rate hike in years. Here\u2019s a good rundown of what that could mean for mortgage rates in Canada by mortgage finance company MCAP.<\/p>\n

The price of diesel and your grocery bill<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing new with the wars in Ukraine and Iran keeping energy prices high. But the price of diesel, which powers trucks and trains, has gone through the rough lately, in part because of concurrent refinery bottlenecks. Those high prices could soon drive up the cost of groceries. <\/p>\n

Chart of the day<\/p>\n

One big misconception in personal finance is how fast money actually loses purchasing power. CPI suggests your money loses half its value every 30 years, but this chart<\/a> points to 13 years. <\/p>\n

New products that caught my eye<\/p>\n

There are a few good calculators out there that estimate the impact of investment fees on overall returns. This one<\/a> from Quebec\u2019s financial markets regulator, the Autorit\u00e9 des march\u00e9s financiers, lets you input an initial value for savings your already have, instead of assuming the starting point is $0. <\/p>\n

We want to hear from you<\/p>\n

Are you selling your U.S. investments? The Globe and Mail\u2019s Stress Test podcast team wants to hear from young Canadians concerned about their portfolio amid the the Canada-U.S. trade war. What U.S.-based investments have you sold? Where are you investing your money instead? Have you taken a financial hit by moving your investments, or have you decided to leave your portfolio as is? E-mail Globe editor Roma Luciw<\/a> with your trade war investing thoughts, rants and actions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A Canadian study found a surge in emergency-room visits for gambling-related disorders among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,47210,61,60,410,411,7784,47207,174,47213,47208,47211,47212,47209],"class_list":["post-629072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-high-interest-saving","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-newsletter","tag-onmoneynewsletter","tag-personal-finance","tag-personal-finance-advice-canada","tag-personal-finance-canada","tag-personal-finance-newsletter","tag-personal-finance-planning","tag-saving-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}