[Ontario] Gambling disorder Spikes.

[Mrbluntzy]

‎There were many reasons that made Ontario's government to launched its own regulated gambling market in 2022 and part of the reasons was to make sure players are protected and maintain responsible gambling and to also avoid underage access to gambling but I was surprised to see this article yesterday and it made me wonder whether there is indeed a true method that can protect people against  gambling harm.  
‎
‎The article mentioned that players wagered C$82.7 billion which was 32% higher than a year earlier before the government launched their online gambling market and the revenue the government realized from gambling rose by 31% reaching C$2.9bn, that kept me wondering, could it be that the Ontario government were only more concerned about generating revenue and competing with unregulated market than protecting gamblers against gambling harm.
‎
‎In this case, it's looking like Ontario failed  to protect players against gambling harms, they had more economic advantages, while the number of people with gambling disorders significantly spiked after the expansion of their online market. The spike can not be compared to what it was when they had not launched their market.  
‎
‎In my opinion, the knowledge in this information is that, no matter how best a country tries to help solve gambling harms problems, the people should also protect themselves, the people should learn how to help themselves prevent gambling harm because prevention is better than cure. The help that the government in your country is offering should not be an excuse for you to go hard on gambling.
‎
‎One interesting thing which I feel jealous about is that, Ontario has the facility that acomodate people with gambling harm, they have treatment infrastructure for gambling harm patients, including residential care (most of those services are free). My country doesn't have such facility, therefore if you suffer any gambling harm problem here, you are on your own.
‎
‎

A provincial study suggests that visits to the ER for gambling problems after the launch of the online market rose, and the rate was 154% higher than expected by mid-2025
‎
‎Ontario’s expansion of online gambling was followed by a sharp rise in emergency department visits linked to gambling disorders.
‎
‎The increase did not occur immediately after Ontario opened its regulated private online market in April 2022. Instead, the rate began climbing by 7% each quarter.
‎
‎By the second quarter of 2025, it was an estimated 99% above the level expected from earlier trend
‎
‎Young men accounted for much of that change. Among males aged 10 to 29, the rate was 154% higher than expected by mid-2025.
‎
‎Nearly one-third of gambling-related visits led to hospital admission.
‎
‎Ontario introduced its private regulated internet gambling market in April 2022. Its growth since then has been substantial.
‎
‎During the 2024-25 financial year, players wagered C$82.7bn through private operators. That was 32% higher than a year earlier.
‎
‎Gaming revenue climbed 31% to C$2.9bn. The market ended the year with 50 active operators and more than 2.6m active player accounts.
‎
‎The scale of that market matters when considering gambling-related harm.

[gracreavix]

I noticed something. Regulations which are created by the government to monitor casinos and can also be for players protection. But we should also know that regulations can't remove addiction and it might to an extent control addiction. Addiction is something internal to every individual. It's like saying government should find a way to make people control themselves. You're adult not a kid. Even eliminating gambling is not even the way. What the government can do is to tighten the regulations very well.

[SatsPH]

It could be a good case study in the future for gamblers and how a government might tackle issue of addiction. Yes, they have build facility for recovering addicts, but going to be hard to maintain when the numbers grow.

So this is part and parcel of regulating gambling, it's going to boom, taxes are going to be collected, but there could be more addicts around that they have to cater and help recover. And it's going to be a vicious cycle.

[Yorubek]

No matter how much the government imposes rules on casinos or imposes strict rules and regulations on gambling, it is never possible to completely control gambling or protect the common people from gambling addiction. To stay free from the horrors of gambling or from gambling addiction, the gambling activity or aggressive mentality of a gambler plays a big role here. Therefore, if the gambler does not want to protect himself from the terrible destruction of gambling, then no one else can keep him free from gambling addiction. Therefore, the role or contribution of the gambler is most important here. If a gambler gambles without being aware of himself, then no one can protect him from gambling addiction.

[Mia Chloe]

‎~snip

Based on countless cases I have seen in the past the truth is the only way you can prevent gambling disorder or other negative effects of gambling is if the person or persons you are trying to keep safe actually want to prevent these things themselves or else most of the efforts would look like a waste and that includes government intervention.

Infact sometimes I am of the opinion that the government may even be indirectly causing more harm than good evening if it's not the original intention. Efforts to protect people in these kinda cases are often viewed as a threat to their freedom instead of help.

[Rockstarguy]

‎
‎In this case, it's looking like Ontario failed  to protect players against gambling harms, they had more economic advantages, while the number of people with gambling disorders significantly spiked after the expansion of their online market. The spike can not be compared to what it was when they had not launched their market.  
‎

They would have concentrated in regulating gambling and to protect gamblers than to launch a gambling market. If the government is interested in the market, the money that will be generated will make them lose focus.

‎In my opinion, the knowledge in this information is that, no matter how best a country tries to help solve gambling harms problems, the people should also protect themselves, the people should learn how to help themselves prevent gambling harm because prevention is better than cure. The help that the government in your country is offering should not be an excuse for you to go hard on gambling.
‎‎

Gambling control is an individual decision,  gamblers would aways look for a way to access gambling and no matter how the government tries to regulate it may no have good effect.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

‎There were many reasons that made Ontario's government to launched its own regulated gambling market in 2022 and part of the reasons was to make sure players are protected and maintain responsible gambling and to also avoid underage access to gambling but I was surprised to see this article yesterday and it made me wonder whether there is indeed a true method that can protect people against  gambling harm.  

Government will not walk to your home to monitor you if you are gambling or not, but rather create an environment that don't openly allow gambling expose to minors, of which that's what I thought the Ontario government actually did. And its left for the citizens to decide if to gamble responsibly or not. And secondly, effective counseling and education on the negative effects of gambling from door to door or from each public centers like the church, mosque, market or schools on the negative effects of gambling are the best place to start such campaign from. And the more people are educated on the negative effects of gambling, the more people will start losing interest after realizing its never always that easy to get rich with gambling as they thought, because that's usually the primary reason why people always gamble. And another thing is that as long as government keeps generating huge revenue from gambling, they will never stop it, but regulate it. Hence, it is our responsibility to always play safe.  

‎One interesting thing which I feel jealous about is that, Ontario has the facility that acomodate people with gambling harm, they have treatment infrastructure for gambling harm patients, including residential care (most of those services are free). My country doesn't have such facility, therefore if you suffer any gambling harm problem here, you are on your own.

For the fact that Ontario has a working facility to handle issues related to gambling addiction is still not a motivation for those who are not to intentionally get themselves to it. But rather self respect and accountability for responsible gambling should always be a priority.

[acroman08]

I posted a thread around 6 months ago about the rise in young adults contacting the Ontario gambling helpline. The article I shared on the thread I made also said that an increase of young adults contacting the helpling when Ontario expanded private online gambling in April 2022. So, clearly the move they made to expand private online gambling contributed(a lot) to the gambling disorder spike they are seeing now.

One interesting thing which I feel jealous about is that, Ontario has the facility that acomodate people with gambling harm, they have treatment infrastructure for gambling harm patients, including residential care (most of those services are free). My country doesn't have such facility, therefore if you suffer any gambling harm problem here, you are on your own.

Yeah, it's great that they have facilities to accomodate people, but with the increase of people developing gambling disorder, they should also increase the facilities that could help people suffering from gambling disorder/addiction.

[Odohu]

‎One interesting thing which I feel jealous about is that, Ontario has the facility that accommodate people with gambling harm, they have treatment infrastructure for gambling harm patients, including residential care (most of those services are free). My country doesn't have such facility, therefore if you suffer any gambling harm problem here, you are on your own.
‎

I like the proactive measures that Ontario is implementing to tackle gambling related problems, it shows they really care about their citizens. Even though gambling addiction is not a major emergency in my country, it would have been wonderful to see something similar to these measures being implemented in my country because there are still a lot of youths that need help relating to gambling. I read a post in the past about other countries adopting this approach too and to the extent of giving assistance to gamblers to pay back gambling debt too.

[Silverstonez]

Those in government are only interested in protecting themselves and enriching themselves, just imagine the Ontario government they deceived citizens by making them believe that they will protect them from gambling related harm, only to to ahead to launch their own regulated market. Instead of protecting their citizens from gambling harm as they had previously promised they used them to generate revenue for themselves and not for the benefit of the country. In my country we don’t believe anything that’s comes from the mouth of our government officials, because they don’t mean well for us, the citizens. they are only interested in lining their own pockets.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

I see no mistake and harm from Ontario laughing such online gambling market, from the article, you could see "regulated private online market" what does it mean to you.

It means, players are regulated on their platform when placing bets, in other words, it could means that gamblers sometimes get restricted when excessive stakes are noticed from the system integrated algorithms. My opinion

No newly launched gambling platform decrease over time, it always increases, so Ontario gambling platform is not the first to experience such spike, it's normal, I don't blame the Ontario government to establish such platform.

I'll only blame if they refuse to restrict and regulate players from excessive gambling, where a certain number of stake should be allowed per day by a player.

[noorman0]

-snip-
 could it be that the Ontario government were only more concerned about generating revenue and competing with unregulated market than protecting gamblers against gambling harm.

That doesn't necessarily explain that the Ontario government is failing in its mission, their statistics could say otherwise. The increase in revenue could be due to the fact that in another edition, illegal gambling was also eradicated by the Ontario government, which further narrowed the remaining gamblers' choice of platforms. If you only look at the income side as an indicator, at first glance it looks like there is a conflict of interest being fought. Whichever direction the earnings statistics go, they will get bad reviews.

[ejikeme24]

‎~snip

Based on countless cases I have seen in the past the truth is the only way you can prevent gambling disorder or other negative effects of gambling is if the person or persons you are trying to keep safe actually want to prevent these things themselves or else most of the efforts would look like a waste and that includes government intervention.

You're right, it is just like when you're asking a gambling addict to stop gambling entirely. At first they will find your advice very helpful that's in that initial time, but when you give them some space they will still return back to gamble. And that's because they have not make up their mind to stop gambling. In this case not even a therapist would stop them from gambling, and yeah not even the government can stop them from gambling.  that is the reason why I don't welcome this idea of restriction or ban. Because doing that is more like push them to start doing it secretly.

[Cryptomultiplier]

The issue with such gambling spike disorder is a personal matter because the government benefits from gambling activities financially but the thing is that while they benefit from gambling revenue, the gamblers get deep into gambling activities and this is what made them think offering free built in medical care for addiction is a good idea, which should help curb the gambling addiction spike more than regulations ever could.

The simple truth we should acknowledge is that, no matter how much government makes strict regulations or build free built in medical care for addicted gamblers, it is up to the individual gambler who has the will to quit or keep it under control, to do so on their own. It's an individual responsibility.

[Davidvictorson]

‎There were many reasons that made Ontario's government to launched its own regulated gambling market in 2022 and part of the reasons was to make sure players are protected and maintain responsible gambling and to also avoid underage access to gambling but I was surprised to see this article yesterday and it made me wonder whether there is indeed a true method that can protect people against  gambling harm.  
‎
‎The article mentioned that players wagered C$82.7 billion which was 32% higher than a year earlier before the government launched their online gambling market and the revenue the government realized from gambling rose by 31% reaching C$2.9bn, that kept me wondering, could it be that the Ontario government were only more concerned about generating revenue and competing with unregulated market than protecting gamblers against gambling harm.
‎
‎In this case, it's looking like Ontario failed  to protect players against gambling harms, they had more economic advantages, while the number of people with gambling disorders significantly spiked after the expansion of their online market. The spike can not be compared to what it was when they had not launched their market.

Let's pause and think about this for a minute.
If there were no regulations what do you think would have happened.
Think about it for a minute... do you think there would have been reported twice as much spike in gambling disorders that was reported?
Do you think that more gamblers would have been cheated out of their hard-earned money because they want to have some fun at the casino by illegal and unregistered casino operators and then latter face no consequence because there was no law binding them?

Well nothing is perfect. The government usually tries as best as they can to enact laws that are in the best interest of the people and if it doesn't go as planned, the CSOs, CBOs, NGOs, and other bodies can rise up and speak about it. They usually listen to them.
‎
‎

[sunsilk]

IMHO, gambling addiction or any disorder that's associated with it will continue to spike. They boast about the billion dollars on this industry and it's set to grow as year passes by.

‎One interesting thing which I feel jealous about is that, Ontario has the facility that acomodate people with gambling harm, they have treatment infrastructure for gambling harm patients, including residential care (most of those services are free). My country doesn't have such facility, therefore if you suffer any gambling harm problem here, you are on your own.
‎

The funding that's being spent on this also comes from the people who gamble and profits from the casinos.

If this is already done and gamblers are aware that there's this facility care that will take care of them. What will have in their mind is this "it's okay to have a gambling disorder, the facility will take care of me later".

[Accardo]

The simple truth we should acknowledge is that, no matter how much government makes strict regulations or build free built in medical care for addicted gamblers, it is up to the individual gambler who has the will to quit or keep it under control, to do so on their own. It's an individual responsibility.

Haven't you noticed that people get to double their energy on things they're restricted from doing, the government's duty is to help citizens get out of trouble, but these things don't help it'll only fuel the desire of gamers to play more since the access is there. The good thing is getting players to work with the health centers by letting them know that they could actually visit one whenever they feel like their habit is getting out of hand.

[Darker45]

The government exists to precisely enforce order. If people, left alone, can't guarantee it among themselves, then the government would have to intervene.

If people, given freedom to gamble with the reminder to do it moderately, can't help themselves but go beyond their means, then the government would have to get into the picture and strictly implement necessary policies.

If people are fully capable of helping themselves, protecting themselves, behaving properly, governments are of no use. But there are governments precisely because people can't do that.

[Ziskinberg]

The study only covered data until June 2025, so I think it may still be too early to say that all of Ontario's current gambling protection measures have failed.

Based on what i read, they actually launched BetGuard in May 2026 ( that was published at that date), which allows a gambler to self-exclude from all regulated online gambling sites in Ontario through one system. .... Ontario BetGuard centralized self-exclusion

So for me, its more interesting to the data after that implementation to see if there's an improvement or not before we call it a failure.

[Nrcewker]

‎There were many reasons that made Ontario's government to launched its own regulated gambling market in 2022 and part of the reasons was to make sure players are protected and maintain responsible gambling and to also avoid underage access to gambling but I was surprised to see this article yesterday and it made me wonder whether there is indeed a true method that can protect people against  gambling harm.  

I might be wrong but one of the reasons might be to make extra money. I mean we all know how much money is involved in gambling. Hence the government might have decided to regulate the gambling business in the name of tackling gambling addiction. But actually the sole motive could have been to make lots of money through taxes and commissions.

This is nothing new. Almost all governments are doing the same thing. They just pretend that they care about the public but in reality, they are simply collecting funds for the next elections. The number of people gambling before and after the regulation will probably remain the same or might even increase, as mentioned by the OP. So the only one making a profit here is the government.