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Research cited in a CBC investigation estimates that nearly 130,000 Ontarians show signs of problem gambling—roughly three times the 2018 estimate.
The reporting also identifies increases in gambling-related deaths and demand for support, putting Ontario’s online gambling safeguards under scrutiny.
Ontario opened its regulated online casino and sports betting market to private operators in April 2022. The findings draw on survey research, coroner records and studies of gambling-related health services.
Survey Estimates Show a Sharp Increase
The Alberta Gambling Research Institute estimates that nearly 130,000 Ontario residents now show signs of problem gambling, compared with roughly 43,000 in 2018. Its analysis used the Problem Gambling Severity Index and data from Statistics Canada’s 2025 Canadian Community Health Survey.
Those figures are estimates of people showing signs of problem gambling, not a count of clinical diagnoses. The comparison also begins in 2018, four years before the private online market opened.
Institute researcher Carrie Shaw described the work as “brand new,” according to the report. She said problem gambling increased in Ontario in the six months after the private market opened while declining elsewhere in Canada.
Coroner Records and Support Calls Add Context
CBC reported that gambling-related suicides tripled after 2022. Records from Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner showed an average of five such deaths annually from 2016 through 2021.
The investigation also cited a September 2026 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reporting a sharp increase in Ontario emergency department visits among people with gambling disorders.
Separately, a March 2026 Canadian Medical Association Journal study found a 95.5% increase over the preceding decade in men and boys making gambling-related calls to ConnexOntario. That longer period is distinct from the post-launch comparison.
Scrutiny Centers on Tracking Gambling Harm
Matthew Young of Greo Evidence Insights said he had urged the government two years earlier to improve tracking of online gambling activity amid concerns about addiction, bankruptcies and suicides.
“We warned that we might be seeing the harms that we’re now seeing in the data,” Young said, according to the report.
CBC also cited Toronto Star reporting that iGaming Ontario shelved a study intended to track problem gambling rates after researchers found higher-than-expected levels. In a statement to the Star, iGaming Ontario said the province’s online market “has some of the strictest standards in the country.”
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Source: As reported by CBC.
