The legislation that would task the federal government with establishing national guidelines for regulating sports betting advertising may have been approved by the Senate two years in a row, but not all Canadian politicians in Parliament are convinced it’s the right way to go.
Bill S-211 would mandate the Minister of Canadian Heritage to consult with federal and provincial government representatives and a range of stakeholders to develop nationwide standards. Particular focuses would be on identifying measures to restrict ads as deemed appropriate, assessing ways to promote research and intergovernmental information-sharing and establishing guidelines for the prevention and diagnosis of gambling harms and addiction.
Last week, the National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act got its first lengthy presentation since it passed the Senate in October, as members of the House of Commons offered their thoughts to start the second reading process.
Sports betting hindsight and foresight
During Senate debate in both 2024 and 2025, senators and representatives from mental health and youth support organizations cited several reasons for supporting the bill. Much of the debate focused on protecting minors and vulnerable people from exposure to betting ads.
MPs also voiced concerns that adverts for Ontario-licensed sportsbooks are beamed across the country despite only Ontario currently allowing commercial iGaming operators to do business in a regulated market. That is an argument that other provinces’ lottery crown corporations have been making since Ontario launched its commercial iGaming market in April 2022.
Presenting S-211 at second reading on Feb. 12, Liberal MP Bardish Chagger touched on many of the familiar points while noting that this June will mark the fifth anniversary of the legalization of single-event sports betting in Canada.
“Enough time has now passed since the expansion for its impacts to become increasingly visible,” she told the chamber. “We have the benefit of foresight here. We can see where this is heading, and we cannot stand by and let our country steer straight toward that iceberg by doing nothing.
“The ads we see that permeate every phone and television screen across the country are all from Ontario, the one province, for now, where private companies are allowed to operate and advertise. Constituents from coast to coast to coast are growing tired of and increasingly concerned by seeing advertisements pushing sports betting.”
Too many referees on the field?
Alberta will soon join Ontario in that regard and will also implement its own rules for how sportsbooks can market themselves. Since the national framework proposal was first introduced in mid-2023, the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) has reiterated that it feels that federal intervention is an overreach, given that the Criminal Code bestowed responsibility for gambling regulation and management to the provinces back in the 1980s.
“Sports betting in Canada already has a referee on the field,” CGA President and CEO Paul Burns wrote in an op-ed last week. “Provincial regulators have been setting and enforcing rules for decades … Bill S-211 would add a second referee who has not been part of the play, creating overlap where clarity is essential and inviting a level of confusion that helps no one.”
Burns added that neither Ontario nor Alberta supports Bill S-211 and that the CGA recently unveiled a new Code for Responsible Gaming Advertising that he said complements provincial regulation rather than replacing it.
When does intervention become overreach?
Bill S-211 also mandates that federal ministers would need to consult with provincial and territorial gambling industry and gaming regulators to steer the federal standards. Suffice it to say that, like with a lot of contentious issues in Parliament, there are political tensions and partisan nuances at play.
Sébastien Lemire of the Bloc Québécois told the Commons that his party believes that sports betting advertising is a problem that needs to be addressed. But that, he said, is not the remit of the federal government.
“Canada is jumping headfirst into areas of jurisdiction that belong exclusively to Québéc and to the other provinces,” Lemire said. “It is not the federal government’s responsibility. The federal government ceded all jurisdiction over gaming to the provinces.”
Like all other provinces except for Ontario and Alberta, Québéc has not chosen to welcome in commercial competitors to its own governmental gaming operator, Loto-Québéc, despite vociferous lobbying for it to open up its market. Lemire noted that while he does not agree with the Ontario model, he respects that provincial government’s choice. So should the federal government, he told the chamber.
“In our view, this is another perfect example of Ottawa encroaching on a jurisdiction that is not its own,” added Lemire. “Québéc already regulates online gambling advertising. What the federal government wants to do here is tell us what to do and how to do it, as though we were incapable of doing so and as though every province did not have that ability.”
One-size-fits-all fits none
Conservative MP Philip Lawrence said Lemire raised “a terrific point.”
“The idea is good, I have no doubt about that,” Lawrence opined of Bill S-211. “But I’m hoping some work can be done in committee so that we do not just have a bureaucrat-led, one-size-fits-all solution; so that we bring in partners, so that we have agreement from the provinces and the premiers from coast to coast and agreement from the industry.”
For now, S-211 remains at second reading. At some point, a referral to committee will surely follow, at which point MPs will likely have more specific recommendations about how to proceed — as well as many more questions.
“We know that the intention was to give provinces and territories jurisdiction,” acknowledged Chagger. “But certain provinces have imposed on the space of other provinces and people are seeing advertising across the country.
“We ask whether that is a responsibility of the federal government. If it is, let us do something about it.”
