Over the last few years, there has been an explosion that’s upended the sports world. Following pressure from lobbyists, lawmakers throughout the U.S. and Canada loosened restrictions on gambling apps and sports betting. This move has been a disaster, largely one borne on the shoulders of young men, and the consequences are going to be harming society for years to come.
It makes sense that in our atomized, anti-social society brought about by the digital portals through which we interact with the world, modern gambling would be an equally grim spectacle: a bunch of people mindlessly setting their money on fire while alone on the coach or in line at the grocery store. In a time where many young people are seeing a decline in their standards of living, as the cost of living soars ever higher and wages remain stagnant, there’s a certain nihilistic thrill that comes with putting money down on a silly wager. What’s the use in saving for the future anyway, if the world’s going to hell?
Even more sinister, the people in charge of the assault on Iran have taken this gamification further and are openly using their insider information to enrich themselves through “prediction markets”. Why just watch the news when you can gamble on it too? When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz re-opening, I’d be taking the over.
Proponents of gambling sites, like cigarette and alcohol manufacturers before them, do their best to obscure and minimize the harms their products have on society, while aggressively fighting any attempt to restrict their market access.
We’re not talking about a trip to the bingo hall with meemaw. Modern apps ensure that there’s a casino in everyone’s pocket, open 24/7. There is practically zero friction in the transfer of money from a bank account to a digital wager, which makes problematic behaviour all the more difficult to curb.
Isn’t this a victimless crime you might ask? No one is forcing these primarily young men from wagering their rent money on the outcome of a UFC fight, or the SuperBowl, right?
While gambling puts billions of dollars into provincial coffers every year, it’s worth examining if the trade off has been worth it, and if further regulation is required. A study published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that Ontario’s mental health hotline had seen a 300 per cent increase in calls from young men (ages 15-24) for gambling-related issues since 2015, when Ontario launched its online gambling website PlayOLG. Over the same period, the increase in calls was 107 per cent for males aged 25-54. While it’s true that only a fraction of people who gamble will develop problematic behaviours, we should be sensitive to the impacts on those who will have issues with it. The lack of hard data is part of the problem, we’ve been running a giant social experiment since these sites appeared a few years ago.
The fact that there are no meaningful limits on gambling advertising means that every sports event on TV has become an endless stream of enticements to place a bet. Depending on the sport, you can even have commentators discuss the most interesting prop bets and parleys as they’re calling the on-field action. If someone has a gambling problem and wants to stop, they would likely have to give up watching sports entirely.
That’s not even mentioning the impacts on the competition itself. There have been several high-profile incidents of illicit behaviour by athletes or insiders in numerous leagues.
Former NDP MP Brian Masse, who was a prominent advocate for legalizing sports gambling, recently came out in support of limits on gambling advertising.
“It’s deplorable the way that some of the provinces have actually implemented it. They’ve allowed the private sector to basically own and operate,” he told CBC News for an article published Apr. 6. “I don’t have regrets, but it’s sad to see some of the repercussions. We can still avoid them, too. The story isn’t done.”
Better late than never I suppose, but these repercussions were entirely predictable. Both provincial and federal legislators should have put better guardrails in place before they passed these rules into law.
Even if gambling advertising were banned tomorrow, it wouldn’t eliminate the societal problems this industry causes. However, imposing some common-sense limits on how these apps can be marketed would be a good start.