A bill that would dramatically limit sports betting advertising in Canada is set for a hearing in the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Thursday morning.
The stop may well be the final one before S-211 gets a full vote on the floor of the House of Commons. Introduced in May 2025, it passed out of the Senate last October and has slowly been making its way through the House of Commons.
Much of the decision making for details of a national advertising framework would be left to the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. That office, per the bill, would be tasked with developing a national sports betting advertising framework that would “regulate sports betting advertising in Canada, with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the number, scope or location — or a combination of these — of the advertisements or to limiting or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting.”
What the bill doesn’t address is the frequency of sports betting ads, which has been a key complaint among Canadians since Ontario became the first province to launch legal sports betting and iGaming in April 2022. Alberta launched its markets in July. Two other provinces — Quebec and New Brunswick — may be moving toward launching markets. In 2021, Parliament decriminalized single-event sports betting, paving the way for provinces to legalize.
The CBC, in partnership with the University of Bristol, this year released research stating that during seven NHL games involving Canadian teams, viewers saw some form of gambling ad or marketing 3,000 times. That included patches on jerseys or helmets, in-stadium logos, or advertisements.
S-211 would also call for government agencies to share information with regard to the “prevention and diagnosis” of gambling addiction in minors and create a national framework to manage both. The six-page bill does not lay out a framework, but rather a guide to building one out.
European countries have ad restrictions
In both Canada and the U.S., the decision to legalize sports betting is left to local governments and there is no federal oversight. It’s likely that U.S. stakeholders will be watching how things unfold in Canada, as there are several bills circulating in Washington, D.C. that seek to add a federal framework around responsible gambling and advertising. In recent years, countries across Europe have banned or heavily restricted wagering advertising.
“Multiple countries since then have introduced quite strict regulations and restrictions on gambling marketing in sports,” Raffaello Rossi, the lead researcher for the CBC-University of Bristol study, told the CBC. “So, for example, in Belgium and Italy and Spain, there’s almost entire bans on sponsorship during sports.”
Since launch in Ontario, the regulator there has banned using celebrities and athletes in advertising for gambling companies, though they can appear in responsible gaming ads or marketing materials. Ontario’s guidelines also prohibit operators from marketing to those under the legal betting age, ban the use of the words “free” and “risk free” in relation to promotions, and mandate that responsible gaming messages be including in advertising and marketing materials. Alberta’s advertising guidelines mimic Ontario’s.
PA bill would ban same-game parlays
A Pennsylvania bill filed last Wednesday would create an Online Problem Gambling Public Health Task Force. It would also tighten restrictions on how much and how often bettors can wager and how frequently they can fund accounts. In addition, the proposal would ban microbetting and same-game parlays.
HB 2879 includes what would be some of the strictest limitations on bettors anywhere in the U.S. Per the bill, which was referred to the House Gaming Oversight Committee, operators would not be able to accept more than two deposits from the same customer within a 24-hour period and would require an affordability check for any bettor who attempts to deposit $5,000 over 180 days. Customers would have to sign off on affordability checks and provide documentation.
The proposal also calls for a 15-minute waiting period between making a deposit (other than the initial deposit to open the account) and placing a wager; caps the amount wagered “per play” at $2 in online casino games for those between the ages of 21-25, and at $5 for those over 25; and bans operators from taking bets from anyone who exceeds a loss threshold within 24 hours or 30 days. For example, if a bettor under the age of 25 loses $750 or more in 24 hours or $1,500 in 30 days, a cooling-off period during which bets cannot be placed would be required.
Bettors would also be required to set daily and monthly loss limits, as well as provide biometric data on login and at 30-minute intervals while gambling.
Pennsylvania’s state legislature is in session until Nov. 30, and bills filed this year do not carry over to 2027.
