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The fight over sports betting advertising in Canada just picked up another Senate voice.
Senator Rob Black, who represents Ontario’s Wellington County area, has signed onto a letter urging Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to ban all advertising for sports gambling apps and websites. The letter, backed by more than 40 senators, asks Ottawa to use both legislation and regulation to shut down sportsbook marketing across broadcast and digital channels, including through federal direction to the CRTC.
The message from the senators is that Canadians have been inundated since single-event sports betting was legalized, and that the volume is no longer just “part of the broadcast”, it’s starting to compete with the sport itself. In the letter, senators argue the constant ads risk normalizing gambling and could undermine confidence in game integrity as more money floods into betting markets.
Senators want a cigarette-style ad ban, with the CRTC in the mix
The senators aren’t asking for lighter restrictions or tweaks. They’re calling for a full ban, explicitly comparing it to Canada’s long-standing approach to cigarette advertising.
Their letter asks the federal government to lean on every lever it has, including instructing the CRTC, to remove sports gambling advertising from the public sphere. It’s a direct appeal to treat betting ads as a public health issue rather than standard consumer marketing.
Black’s support matters because it adds to a Senate-led campaign that has been building for months, with public coverage and formal documentation already circulating beyond Ottawa.
The public health argument is doing most of the heavy lifting
The senators’ letter leans on public health language, including reference to The Lancet’s work describing gambling as an “expanding public health threat,” and calling for reduced exposure through restrictions on promotion, marketing, and sponsorship.
They also tie the current advertising surge to Canada’s legalization of single-event sports betting under Bill C-218, arguing that Parliament helped create the conditions for a betting-ad boom, and that Parliament can step back in to reduce the damage.
For iGaming and sports betting operators, the immediate takeaway is political momentum, not a sudden rule change tomorrow. But the direction is clear: the Senate is trying to move the national conversation away from “responsible messaging” and toward an outright prohibition on sportsbook advertising, with federal regulators pulled into enforcement.
Source: ElorafergusToday
