Ontario’s online gambling market has generated $3 billion in provincial revenue since its launch, while emergency department visits for gambling disorders have doubled, according to findings from thestar.com.
The province faces mounting scrutiny as data indicates that insolvencies linked to gambling have more than tripled and gambling-related suicides have increased significantly.
The rise in public health concerns follows a period of rapid market expansion. Last fiscal year, Ontarians wagered more than $82 billion. Currently, nearly 130,000 residents show signs of problem gambling, a figure roughly triple the estimate from 2018, according to Yahoo! Finance Canada.
While the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario implemented regulations in 2024 to remove celebrities and athletes from advertisements, critics argue that the sheer volume of marketing remains a primary driver of the crisis.
The impact extends to the province’s youth. According to Policy Options, 12 percent of students reported gambling online in the past year, representing a 50 percent increase from 2023. Online sports betting among students has risen tenfold since 2019, despite these individuals being below the legal gambling age.
Tensions regarding the province’s approach have persisted since before the legal market opened. The Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation submitted concerns to the government in April 2021, warning that the iGaming framework required stronger harm prevention measures.
Reports also indicate that the province secretly shelved a study it commissioned to track rates of problem gambling after officials were dissatisfied with the researchers’ findings. In September 2026 alone, Ontarians wagered $9.71 billion on regulated online gambling sites, up 14% from a year earlier, according to iGaming Ontario. Operators retained approximately $416 million of that sum across 1.41 million active accounts.
While the federal government considers Bill S-211 to address sports betting advertisements, the legislation would not apply to online casino games, which constitute 88 percent of betting activity in the province. As of November 2026, government promises to address the crisis remain unfulfilled. Questions regarding the province’s policy remain open to the public; readers can register with the Star to submit queries for a live Q&A session.
Worth a look