Young Men’s Gambling Helpline Calls Up 317% After Ontario Expansion
A new Canadian study finds that gambling-related helpline contacts among young Ontario men surged over 300%
A new study is raising serious questions about the public health impact of Ontario’s online gambling expansion. Researchers found that gambling-related contacts to the province’s mental health helpline surged dramatically among young men after private online betting was introduced. Responsible gaming has been a priority in Ontario since the province saw a boom in recent years.
The findings are now fueling calls for stronger advertising restrictions and better access to treatment.
What the Study Found
The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, analyzed contacts to ConnexOntario from January 2012 to September 2025. ConnexOntario is Ontario’s free 24-hour mental health and addictions helpline.
Over the full 13-year period, the helpline received more than 745,700 contacts. Approximately 37,000 of those were gambling-related. Researchers noted that contact rates were stable before Ontario’s policy changes. However, two events clearly disrupted that stability.
The first shift followed the 2015 launch of PlayOLG, the province’s government-run online gambling platform. The second, and far larger, spike followed the expansion of private online gambling in April 2022.
Young Men Are the Most Affected Group
The numbers tell a striking story. Among boys and men aged 15 to 24, the mean monthly rate of gambling-related helpline contacts rose by 317% between the pre-PlayOLG period and the period following privatization. Among men aged 25 to 44, the rate increased by 108% over the same timeframe.
Dr. Daniel Myran, a research chair at North York General Hospital and co-author of the study, said these numbers demand attention. “The increases that we’re seeing in these contacts to the helpline — is it the tip of the iceberg of much larger increases in the number of people who are engaged in gambling in harmful patterns?” he said.
Myran noted that most people with gambling disorders never seek care. As a result, the helpline data likely underrepresents the true scale of the problem.
Online Gambling Accounts Exploded After Privatization
Beyond the helpline data, the study tracked active player accounts across Ontario. Between April 2022 and August 2025, active accounts per 100,000 people aged 15 and older rose from roughly 2,160 to more than 7,300. That represents a 239% increase in just over three years.
This growth coincided with a significant increase in gambling advertising throughout the province. Myran connected these two trends directly. “When we see that the contacts have really gone up in young men, I think that this is exactly who’s being targeted by the advertisements and who’s going to be placing sports bets,” he said.
Micro-Betting and Loss Chasing Raise the Risk
Myran also flagged in-game betting as a particularly high-risk product. Traditional sports betting involves one wager per event. However, modern platforms now allow bets on individual plays and moments within a single game. This dramatically increases the pace of gambling.
“If you lose money, you might do what’s called loss chasing, where you try and re-wager it to win more,” Myran explained. “It can really accelerate people into gambling disorders.” He also raised concerns about the growing availability of micro-betting products that are specifically designed to keep players engaged for longer periods.
Researchers Call for Policy Action
The study’s authors are clear about what they believe needs to happen next. They are calling for stronger harm-reduction measures, broader restrictions on gambling advertising, and improved access to treatment across the province.
Myran emphasized that gambling addiction carries severe personal consequences. “People who have gambling disorders are really at high risk of mental health conditions including self-harm and suicide,” he said. “It can also have much broader impacts on families and communities around them.”
For its part, the research team argues that Ontario has not yet fully reckoned with the public health implications of its gambling expansion. The scale of the helpline surge among young men suggests the province may need to act quickly before the problem deepens further.
If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling-related issues, ConnexOntario can be reached at 1-866-531-2600, available 24 hours a day.
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