Ontarians Spent $100B on Online Betting, Linked to Suicides and Bankruptcies. Now Alberta Is Next
Canada’s rapid move into online sports betting and internet casino gambling is creating serious concerns for health experts, addiction counsellors, athletes, regulators and sports integrity officials.
While many people use gambling apps as entertainment, recent research and real-life cases show that online betting can also lead to severe financial loss, addiction, family breakdown, harassment of athletes and possible match-fixing.
Medical Student Lost $400,000 to Online Gambling
For Phil, a future Canadian doctor from Windsor, Ontario, medical school was already difficult. But while completing clinical rotations across the United States, he faced another struggle: a destructive online gambling addiction.
Over four stressful years, Phil lost about $400,000 betting on sports and blackjack through his cellphone.
His gambling losses became so severe that he could not afford proper accommodation. After finishing hospital rotations and studying in public spaces such as Panera Bread, he sometimes slept in his car in parking lots.
Phil said he once saw a homeless woman inside a Panera Bread and felt jealous of her ability to simply exist without the pressure he was feeling. He asked that his last name not be published for privacy reasons.
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Ontario’s Online Betting Market Has Exploded
Phil’s story is extreme, but it reflects a growing concern as Canada embraces online gambling.
Ontario legalized online sports betting and internet casino gambling in 2022. Since then, the market has grown quickly.
Over the last year, bettors in Ontario wagered about $103 billion online, generating $4.3 billion in revenue across 76 licensed gambling sites. The province receives 20% of that revenue.
Federal legislation passed in 2021, known as Bill C-218, helped open the door by allowing provinces to license single-event sports betting.
Alberta is preparing to launch a similar commercial online betting program in July, while people in other provinces still have more limited access to unauthorized online gambling sites.
Legalization Was Meant to Control an Existing Industry
The purpose of legalizing single-event sports betting was to bring an already growing underground industry under regulation.
Supporters argued that Canadians were already using offshore or grey-market gambling sites, and that provinces should be able to regulate the industry, protect players and collect revenue.
However, groups that once supported regulation are now warning about the speed and scale of growth.
A 2024 Sports Integrity Canada report said few people expected the explosive expansion of sports gambling that followed. Since then, betting volume in Ontario has doubled.
Gambling Now Available Anytime, Anywhere
Online betting has changed how gambling works.
What once required a trip to a casino, racetrack or bookmaker is now available 24 hours a day on a smartphone.
Experts say this convenience can make gambling feel less real and more addictive.
Chelsea Rodrigues, a gambling addictions counsellor at Windsor’s Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital, said many clients report losing touch with the real meaning of money once they begin gambling online.
She said people can now lose everything in one evening from their couch.
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Research Shows Rising Problem Gambling
Recent studies suggest online gambling may be contributing to a serious increase in addiction.
A federally funded 2024 survey found that one in five Canadians had gambled online, while one in three Canadians aged 18 to 29 had done so.
Among young online gamblers, nearly 70% met the criteria for problem gambling. Overall, almost 40% of online players met those criteria.
Those problems included rising credit card debt, damaged relationships and feelings of shame.
By comparison, fewer than 6% of people who used physical casinos or other traditional gambling methods met problem gambling criteria.
Gambling Help Line Calls and Bankruptcies Rise
Other data also points to growing harm.
Calls to Ontario’s problem-gambling help lines have nearly doubled since the province expanded online gaming and legalized private gambling apps.
Personal insolvencies linked to gambling have also increased sharply.
Ontario recorded between 140 and 214 gambling-related personal insolvencies annually from 2020 to 2022. After commercial online gambling expanded, the number climbed steadily to 727 in 2024.
Coroners Tracking Gambling-Related Suicides
Data from Ontario’s chief coroner shows an increase in suicides involving people with gambling issues after commercial online betting was introduced.
Before legalization in 2022, gambling-related suicides recorded by coroners ranged from two to 12 in a year.
That number rose to 13 in 2023 and 17 in 2024. Another seven had been recorded so far in 2025, though many investigations were still ongoing.
Chief coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer said it is too early to draw firm conclusions, but problem gambling is a known risk factor for suicide. He has asked Ontario’s local coroners to actively look for signs of gambling when investigating self-inflicted deaths.
Large Losses Raise Questions About Safeguards
Ontario’s gambling regulator, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, has fined several operators for failing to properly respond to signs of gambling harm.
One customer reportedly lost $2 million in less than four months without receiving proper intervention from the gambling operator.
Another player lost $230,000 after showing distress and clear loss-chasing behaviour.
In another case, a customer lost more than $500,000 in under three months, even though the operator’s own system flagged concerning activity.
Phil said some gambling apps eventually banned him after asking questions about the source of his money, but he said none connected him with help.
Governments Defend Regulation
Ontario and Alberta officials argue that regulation is better than leaving online gambling in the hands of offshore or unauthorized operators.
Alberta minister Dale Nally said the province cannot simply shut down online gambling because the internet cannot be controlled that way.
He said many Albertans were already using unregulated grey-market sites, including sites that may allow underage gambling and send no revenue to the province.
Nally said Alberta’s regulated model will allow the province to collect revenue and direct some funds toward addiction treatment and First Nations.
In Ontario, the government’s share of online gambling revenue exceeded $800 million over the last 12 months.
The province says it has invested $421 million since 2018 into research, responsible gambling education, awareness programs and addiction treatment.
Critics Say Research Funding Was Cut
Critics note that Ontario cancelled direct funding in 2019 for Gambling Research Exchange Ontario, a centre that studies gambling harms.
The organization now relies partly on public funding from countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Ontario has since introduced some new rules, including a ban on athletes and celebrities appearing in gambling ads.
It has also launched a self-exclusion system allowing problem gamblers to block themselves from all licensed gambling apps at once.
Industry Says Regulation Protects Players
Paul Burns, CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, said the gambling industry supports regulation because Canadians were already gambling online.
He said licensed operators provide fair games, guarantee payouts and must offer player-protection tools.
Burns said the industry wants customers to have a healthy relationship with gambling and wants licensed companies to stand apart from less-regulated offshore operators.
U.S. Court Decision Helped Spark the Shift
Canada’s online gambling expansion was partly shaped by developments in the United States.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting, allowing states to legalize it.
Many U.S. states later approved online wagering.
Canadians could already access many foreign sites, but provinces could not regulate or tax them.
Before Bill C-218, provinces could offer only parlay sports betting, where gamblers had to bet on several outcomes at once. Single-event sports betting was a criminal offence until Parliament changed the law in 2021.
Sports Betting and Casino Gambling Are Closely Linked
Ontario’s regulated online gambling system includes more than sports betting.
More than half of approved sites also offer casino games, and casino games generate over 80% of total revenue.
Michael Naraine, a sports management professor at Brock University, said sports betting often draws people in because it connects to their interest in hockey, football or other sports.
Once on the app, players may shift into casino games while waiting for sports results.
He described sports betting as a gateway to online casino gambling.
Burns disagreed, saying many gamblers are mainly interested in casino games and that Ontario had already been moving toward regulating online casino gambling before the sports-betting law changed.
Technology Can Make Betting More Addictive
Experts say gambling apps use powerful digital tools to attract and retain customers.
Andrew Kim, a psychology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said online gambling platforms can use technology similar to addictive social media features.
These systems can stimulate dopamine, the brain’s feel-good chemical.
Some companies also use artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science to convert casual users into paying customers and encourage more activity.
Micro-bets are one example. These allow users to bet on small, instant outcomes, such as whether the next pitch will be a strike or whether a basketball player will make a free throw.
Advertising Has Become Hard to Avoid
Gambling advertising has become common on television, online platforms, sports broadcasts, billboards and inside arenas.
A study commissioned by CBC’s Marketplace found gambling content made up as much as 21% of televised hockey and basketball broadcasts.
Flutter Entertainment, owner of FanDuel, reported spending nearly $5 billion on global marketing in 2025.
Nigel Turner, a scientist at Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, warned that young people are being conditioned to see gambling as part of sports.
Some politicians are now pushing back. A Senate bill would create a framework for stricter gambling advertising limits, while an Ontario private member’s bill would ban gambling advertising completely.
Phil Says Online Betting Became an Escape
Phil said advertisements did not initially pull him into gambling, but they later worsened his addiction.
He had visited Windsor’s casino socially in the past without major problems.
But after his father died suddenly in 2021, he turned to online betting as an emotional escape.
He said he loved sports, but while waiting for the outcome of a sports bet, he would play blackjack for faster stimulation.
Ontario’s legal system allowed him to use credit cards for the first time, which he said helped him lose large sums very quickly.
What began as $100 wagers eventually grew into bets as high as $2,000.
He also gambled on single points in tennis matches and overseas events such as ping-pong, sometimes staying awake all night.
Several times he won more than $100,000, including $315,000 on one day, only to lose it soon afterward.
Athlete Harassment Has Increased
Online gambling has also affected athletes.
Angry bettors sometimes blame athletes for losing bets, especially when wagers are placed on individual player statistics through proposition, or “prop,” bets.
Former Toronto Raptors player Chris Boucher said in 2023 that a bettor attacked him with racist language online after his scoring total ruined the person’s bet.
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina said she received threats and racist abuse after losing a quarterfinal match at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
At the 2024 U.S. Open golf tournament, gambling spectators shouted at players to influence their performances.
Top golfer Scottie Scheffler said he deleted his Venmo account because people kept requesting reimbursement for losing bets.
The WTA, which runs the leading women’s tennis tour, called for gambling companies to address harassment after a survey found 8,000 abusive, violent or threatening posts aimed at players in one year.
Match-Fixing Concerns Grow
Sports integrity officials also worry that the gambling boom is increasing the risk of match-fixing.
Several professional and college athletes in basketball, baseball and football have faced charges in recent years.
One of the most prominent cases involved former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was banned for life from the NBA.
Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in 2024 after admitting he left two Raptors games early by faking injury or illness so gamblers who bet “under” on his performance would win.
A New York City court heard Porter was struggling with online gambling himself and had been pressured by people who promised to forgive his debts.
Ontario Regulator Examines Suspicious Betting
The Porter case also reached Ontario’s regulator.
The AGCO later proposed suspending PointsBet for five days, alleging it accepted bets on the questioned Porter games and failed to detect or report suspicious activity.
In January, the regulator fined FanDuel $350,000 after it accepted 114 bets from Ontario player accounts on the Czech Table Tennis Stars Series, despite warning signs of possible match-fixing.
Jeremy Luke, CEO of Sport Integrity Canada, said match-fixing may be a bigger threat to sport than doping.
He said Canada needs stronger systems to detect and respond to the problem before a major scandal occurs.
Calls for Stronger Federal Action
Sport Integrity Canada has urged Ottawa to adopt the Macolin Convention, an international treaty focused on fighting match-fixing.
The treaty encourages countries to make match-fixing a crime and build stronger systems to prevent manipulation in sport.
The organization has also created prevention guidelines for sports associations and wants the federal government to make them official.
So far, federal authorities have not acted on either request.
Sports Leagues Embrace Gambling Partnerships
Despite the risks, major North American sports leagues and teams have built partnerships with gambling companies.
Sports broadcasts now regularly include betting discussions, odds and gambling-related segments.
Critics say this creates a contradiction because athletes face harassment and integrity risks while leagues profit from the same gambling industry.
Canadian scholar Declan Hill, author of the upcoming book Birds of Prey, said leagues and teams are putting themselves in a dangerous relationship with the gambling business.
Phil Now in Recovery
Phil eventually told his family and longtime girlfriend about his addiction in 2024.
His girlfriend left him, and he entered treatment at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor.
He has been gambling-free since November and says treatment helped him address deeper emotional issues.
However, he no longer enjoys watching sports the same way.
He said seeing betting odds during broadcasts upsets him because he believes gambling companies are damaging people’s lives, especially those already struggling emotionally.
Canada’s online gambling boom has created a massive new market, especially in Ontario, where billions are wagered each year. Governments and industry leaders argue that regulation protects players and brings an existing grey-market industry under control.
But rising addiction rates, debt, suicides, athlete harassment and match-fixing concerns show the risks are significant. As Alberta prepares to launch its own system, Canada faces growing pressure to strengthen safeguards, limit advertising and protect both vulnerable gamblers and the integrity of sport.
