Losing proposition

It’s just a game. And in the case of the World Cup over the last few weeks, it’s a beautiful game — dozens of them, in fact.

Yet interspersed amongst the exciting broadcast play on the pitch, advertising for sports gambling has raised concerns fun and games may come at too high a cost for some.

A recent New York Times feature pointed to a bonanza for the gaming industry globally, with one analyst stating the flow of bets amounts to as many as 10 Super Bowls.

Billions are likely to be made by online gambling platforms from what has been called the biggest gambling event in history. The other side of that coin is billions of dollars will be lost by sports fans willing to wager on a game’s outcome.

In Canada, sports betting is no slouch for revenue generation, about $6.5 billion in 2025, growing about 14 per cent annually. By 2030, revenues are forecast to reach $10 billion, according to a recent report by Grandview Research.

Depending on the province, between 20 and 100 per cent of the take goes to government coffers. In Manitoba, the government is the “house,” raking in 100 per cent of the revenue — about $76 million in 2025, or about $43 million in income, according to Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp.’s 2024-25 report.

Roughly two per cent of net income goes into “social responsibility” initiatives covering not just gambling addiction but alcohol disorder, among other programs, including research and consumer awareness.

Most of the take supports health care, education and other essential services governments today struggle to fund otherwise. (Not to mention, if the government doesn’t regulate sport gambling and use the profits, people will find ways to gamble elsewhere online with revenues going who knows where.)

Still, legalized sports gambling — especially its widespread marketing — is raising concerns.

Recently, the Chartered Professional Accountants Canada published a survey of the impact of marketing for sports gambling just as the men’s World Cup got underway in June.

It’s certainly not news that almost seven in 10 respondents encounter sports gambling ads daily. What might be more shocking is the impact of the ads: more than a quarter surveyed said advertising has influenced them to place a wager.

Equally notable is younger Canadians are more likely to be influenced with more than one-third stating advertising led them to place a bet.

CPA decided to sponsor the survey because more members are seeing negative outcomes of problem sports gambling, says Li Zhang, financial literacy leader for CPA Canada.

“We wanted to highlight how pervasive marketing has become and how potentially dangerous sport gambling platforms are,” Zhang says. “When you look at the research of those struggling with problem sports gambling, you see that the gambling apps use algorithms” similar to social media to keep people engaged.

Recent McMaster University research points to artificial intelligence upping the ante for engagement. Gamblers’ activities on the apps provide rich behavioural data to the system, which “strengthens the operator’s predictive power.”

Although the odds are always stacked against gamblers, AI-powered technology further stacks those odds.

Especially vulnerable, and often the target of marketing, is one particular group, Zhang says. “You don’t see many women featured in these ads, and that’s because (marketers) know their target: young men.”

Market research for the industry suggests as much. A recent report from Mintel Group Ltd. points to the strongest growth among Gen Zs and millennials, with 85 per cent of men surveyed planning to wager on sports in the next six months. That number falls to 58 per cent for women.

The report also points to faster growth among South Asian and Black communities, especially newcomers.

Determining how many sports gamblers become addicted is challenging.

Statistics Canada data from 2022 shows less than two per cent of gamblers — including lottery players — in Canada were at moderate-to- severe risk of problem gambling.

Young males, it notes, were at higher risk than most other groups.

Yet it’s enough of a problem that the Canadian Psychological Association posted on its website this year a report calling sports gambling a dangerous epidemic. It cites two longtime researchers (Bruce Kidd and Steve Joordens at the University of Toronto) urging Canada to ban sports gambling advertising.

The report points to evidence that ads seem to be designed to appeal to adolescent minds, which are still developing and vulnerable to manipulative messaging.

One local non-profit, Community Financial (formerly Community Financial Counselling Services), offers gambling addiction help to Winnipeggers. It currently has fewer than 10 clients receiving support for problem sports gambling, says counsellor Gopinath Kundukattil.

Most are male, and all are young adults, he adds.

Zhang says the problems from sports gambling are only likely to grow as some provinces are poised to loosen regulation further.

“It’s interesting that some provinces are deciding to open up when there are now clear examples internationally where nations are reversing their decisions because the outcomes have been so terrible.”

She points to the Netherlands, which has proposed banning ads for online gambling after legalizing online sports gambling during the pandemic.

Legal sports gambling indeed provides governments with much-needed money to fund public services, but Canadians may want to consider the social costs, Zhang adds.

“If it keeps going as it has, I believe you’re going to see more young folks getting into trouble.”

Joel Schlesinger is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist.

joelschles@gmail.com