There is a clear association between the expansion of online gambling, gambling advertising, and the number of people seeking help for problem gambling in Ontario, according to a new study.

As Alberta looks to the Ontario model to create its own legal iGaming markets, should the province expect the same outcome?

For a study now published in the Journal of Gambling Studies, researchers compared the number of calls received by Ontario’s problem gambling helpline in the months before and after the province expanded its online gaming market in April 2022.

Dr. Nigel Turner, a scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said that during the pandemic, calls to the helpline initially dropped off when casinos were closed. As more people moved their gaming online, and public health measures were relaxed, the number people looking for help with gambling addiction rebounded – and then kept rising.

“The primary increase was in people calling related to online gambling,” Turner said.

In the ten months before Ontario legalized online gambling, an average of 84 people per month called the problem gambling hotline, compared to 184 in the ten months after legalization.

Along with the rising volume, Turner said there has also been a clear demographic shift in who is reaching out for help.

“There was a shift towards younger players, younger people are more comfortable gambling online, and more males gambling,” he said. Men are more likely to play table games and bet on sports than women.

Prior to the pandemic, online gambling and sports betting were a fairly small niche, Turner said. Though grey markets existed, “a surprisingly small percentage of people went to bookies.” After legalization, half of the people who called the helpline complained about problems with online gambling.

The amount of people who gamble that develop a problem is small, “but they also do make up disproportionately high percentage of the revenue,” he said.

Turner said there is no jurisdiction that has done a particularly good job of developing legal iGaming markets, but there are lessons that can be learned from other regions to minimize negative social impacts.

At the same time Ontario was expanding its gaming market, Britain, where online gambling has existed for years, started tightening regulations.

“They have actually put more regulations on iGaming to try to keep it safer. They’ve banned celebrities (from gambling ads), for example, they’ve cut back on when the ads for the gaming can be shown, to reduce the impact and reduce the amount of exposure to youth to these gaming ads, and they’ve banned credit cards from gaming,” Turner said.

Currently, the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) operated website Play Alberta offers the only legal options for online gambling in the province. In May, the province introduced legislation that allows the province to regulate iGaming.

At the Canadian Gaming Summit in June, Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally said the government is following the Ontario model for an “open and free” market, but gave no indication of when Albertans could expect the open online market to be up introduced.