The rate of young men contacting Ontario\u2019s mental health helpline for gambling-related problems has increased by more than 300 per cent after the province allowed private online gambling, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n
The researchers behind the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday say the findings represent a need for stronger harm-reduction measures and more access to treatment.<\/p>\n
The study analyzed the number of contacts to ConnexOntario, the province\u2019s free 24-hour mental health and addictions helpline, for gambling-related concerns from January 2012 to September 2025. <\/p>\n
It noted an increase after January 2015, when the government launched the gambling platform PlayOLG, as well as after the province expanded private online gambling in April 2022. <\/p>\n
Over the 13-year period researchers looked at, ConnexOntario was contacted more than 745,700 times, the study said, and about 37,000 of those contacts were gambling-related. <\/p>\n
The study found that among boys and men aged 15 to 24, the mean monthly rate of gambling-related outreach per million people rose by 317 per cent from the time before Ontario\u2019s launch of PlayOLG to the period after the privatization of online gambling. <\/p>\n
The rate increased about 108 per cent over the same time frame for men aged 25 to 44, the study further found. Prior to the policy changes, the rates were stable, it said. <\/p>\n
While better awareness of the hotline could be a factor, the spike may not be solely explained by people seeking help for existing problems, said Dr. Daniel Myran, a research chair at North York General Hospital who co-authored the study. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s very good evidence that most people with gambling disorders or gambling problems don\u2019t seek care, and when they do seek care, it\u2019s often through helplines like ConnexOntario,\u201d said Myran. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe increases that we\u2019re seeing in these contacts to the helpline \u2014 is it the tip of the iceberg of much larger increases in the number of people who are engaged in gambling in harmful patterns?\u201d<\/p>\n
Myran noted there has been a higher volume of gambling marketing since the privatization of betting in the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we need to think very carefully about who these ads are reaching and the messages that they\u2019re conveying. And I think we need move to place restrictions on them because they\u2019re right now occurring in venues that are widely seen by youth,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we see that the visits or the contacts have really gone up in young men, I think that this is exactly who\u2019s being targeted by the advertisements and who\u2019s going to be placing sports bets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study further found that between the dawn of online gambling privatization in April 2022 and August of last year, the number of active player accounts per 100,000 people aged 15 or older increased from roughly 2,160 to more than 7,300 \u2014 a 239 per cent increase. <\/p>\n
Myran added there are concerns around micro-betting and other types of gambling that are associated with higher risk of addiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s say that you bet on the outcome of the Super Bowl. It\u2019s one bet that you\u2019ve made. … But you can now actually bet on events that occur within the game itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that if you lose money, you might do what\u2019s called loss chasing, where you try and re-wager it to win more, and it can really accelerate people into gambling disorders.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ultimately, the study\u2019s findings underscore why gambling disorders need to be treated as a public health issue and treatment should be readily available, said Myran. <\/p>\n
\u201cGambling can have really severe consequences to individuals. People who have gambling disorders are really at high risk of mental health conditions including self-harm and suicide,\u201d said Myran. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt can also have much broader impacts on families and communities around them,\u201d he added. \u201cI think that we have not adequately considered how some of the changes that have occurred may have much broader health implications for society.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rate of young men contacting Ontario\u2019s mental health helpline for gambling-related problems has increased by more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[114,163,85,46,522,523,38848],"class_list":{"0":"post-317990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-ontario-quebec"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}