Canada may soon pass additional laws concerning gambling advertisement in the country, with Bill S-211 making its way out of the Senate and now headed for a vote in the House of Representatives.
Should the bill pass, it would obligate the federal Minister of Canadian Heritage to create a national-level regulation of gambling advertisement, which proponents see as a step towards tightening consumer protection measures.
Federal gambling ad regulation could be coming to Canada
However, what the final framework would look like would be out of legislators’ hands more or less, barring passing the law that would make it a possibility in the first place.
The idea is to limit and restrict the current landscape for gambling ads, which many have criticized as too pervasive and harmful to young and vulnerable consumers. While the measures are expected to bite into how much sportsbooks may advertise, the measure would most likely stop short of a complete blanket ban.
Some ideas have been floated, however, drawing from the experience of other jurisdictions. One such is the UK’s whistle-to-whistle ban, which prohibits sports betting ads from being shown during live sports broadcasts, and it is generally received as a good idea.
But before any of this becomes a reality, the House of Representatives would have to convene and vote in favor of Bill S-211. Naturally, the idea of restricting gambling ads has not been too enthusiastically received by the gambling industry.
The industry cautions lawmakers to pay attention
Canadian Gaming Association CEO Paul Burns has sent a letter to the Senate and argued that Bill S-211 creates redundancies in regulation as provincial governments are already working on developing an advertising framework that would best serve their local markets, operators, and consumers.
However, these appeals have mostly fallen on deaf ears, with senators pushing the matter through. At the same time, the United States has also been flirting with the idea of passing a federal-level regulation for gambling advertisement, as many lawmakers have objected to the current pervasiveness of ads.
