After the Canadian Senate approved the idea of establishing a national sports betting advertising framework last year, the lawmaker spearheading the push has filed a new version of the proposal for 2025.

Ontario Sen. Marty Deacon last week introduced Bill S-211, the “National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act.” A spokesperson for Deacon told Canadian Gaming Business on Tuesday that S-211 is the same legislation as 2024’s Bill S-269, the “National Framework on Advertising for Sports Betting Act.”

The Senate voted in favour of passing Bill S-269 last November after several committee hearings and numerous hours of debate between June and October 2024. However, it never made it to discussion in the House of Commons amid a quagmire of backlogged legislation in that chamber.

Once Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned in January and Parliament was prorogued, the issue stalled. But the prospect of federal regulation of sports betting advertising is now back on the agenda under new PM Mark Carney.

“It is [Deacon’s] hope to get this bill passed through the Senate expeditiously, and back to the floor of the House of Commons, where her former Bill S-269 was awaiting second reading before parliament was prorogued, which killed the bill,” the spokesperson for Deacon told CGB.

Bill asserts betting ads have become ‘pervasive’

Deacon’s core argument is that sports betting advertising has become too frequent, too broadly disseminated and too visible and accessible for vulnerable Canadians.

The legislation’s summary states: “The proliferation of sports betting advertising and other forms of gambling activities has become pervasive in Canadian society.”

It asserts that research has shown that increased exposure to gambling advertising leads to increased betting activity, particularly from minors and those at a heightened risk of harm.

S-211 proposes creating a national framework to identify measures to regulate sports betting ads across Canada, with a view to restricting their use, number, scope and/or location, as well as federally limiting or banning the use of celebrities and athletes.

In Ontario, currently Canada’s only regulated commerical online gambling market, the Alcohol and Gambling Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has implemented similar safeguards, such as banning language or imagery that would appeal primarily to minors and restricting the use of celebrities and athletes to promoting operators’ responsible gambling initiatives.

However, Sen. Deacon’s bill calls for “a reasonable and standardized approach” across Canada.

The framework would also identify measures to promote research and intergovernmental information-sharing and set out national standards for the prevention and diagnosis of harmful gambling and addiction and for support measures for those impacted by it.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage would be charged with leading the development of a national framework, in consultation with federal and provincial politicians and officials, First Nations communities and other stakeholders. The Canadian broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), would be required to review its regulations and policies to assess their effectiveness in preventing sports betting advertising-related harms.

A second try on ‘sober second thought’

Last year, in introducing S-269 to the Senate in June, Deacon reflected on Canada’s legalization of single-event sports betting in 2021 and Ontario’s launch of an open commercial online gambling market.

She pointed to a “flood” and a “barrage” of advertising in the wake of those legal changes, and told her fellow Senators that “we have the privilege of sober second thought” on betting advertising.

Numerous points of conversation came up during the discussion of last year’s bill. Those included adverts for Ontario-licensed sportsbooks being broadcast in other provinces, the role that operators, broadcasters, and digital and social media platforms play in disseminating betting ads and whether or not the level of advertising has dropped off since the early stages of Ontario’s regulated market.

The Senate heard testimony from the likes of the Canadian Gaming Association and the CRTC and took written submissions from sports leagues such as the NFL, the NHL and the CFL. The CGA has argued that there is an evidence gap when it comes to the effects of betting advertising and cautioned that a national framework may not be the best approach, while sports leagues warned that a federal approach could be “counter-productive.”

Similar debate will likely follow in the coming weeks and months on the new version of the bill, which is awaiting second reading.

Since the issue was last in the Senate, Alberta has legalised commercial online gambling, and that province’s market is expected to open by early 2026 at the latest.