Canadian Senators are currently considering a bill proposing to create a nationwide framework for sports betting marketing. However, a legislative committee heard Tuesday that work is also ongoing on a code outlining responsible gambling advertising practices for broadcasters. 

Scott Hutton, vice president of consumer, analytics, and strategy for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said that Ad Standards, a not-for-profit self-regulatory organization, and the Canadian Gaming Association, an industry group, are working on the code together.

“When this code is ready, the CRTC will require broadcasters to adhere to the principles within it, just as with other advertising codes,” Hutton told the Senate of Canada’s Transport and Communications Committee. 

The CRTC, Hutton noted, is “an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the Canadian communications sector in the public interest,” collecting feedback from the public and making decisions based on the public record.

Hutton outlined for the committee how the regulation of advertising works in Canada, including how several other codes are applied, such as the one for alcohol. For its part, the CRTC requires broadcasters to follow those codes through the “conditions of service” the regulator imposes. The gambling code would be used similarly. 

Hutton stated that Ad Standards plans to provide "preclearance" for the gambling industry, similar to what the group does for alcohol advertising and marketing directed at children, to ensure sportsbook and casino ads comply with the new code. Ad Standards already collects complaints from the public about gambling ads and reviews them against its Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, which, among other things, tries to ensure TV and internet ads are not misleading or deceptive.  “We are confident that our partners at Ad Standards and the experts they rely on will develop suitable codes, which we can then include in the conditions that broadcasters must follow,” Hutton said in French, according to a translation. 

The CRTC’s conditions for broadcasters are in addition to the ones Ontario-regulated operators must follow under the regulations and contracts they are subject to in Canada’s most populous province. That includes the restrictions that took effect earlier this year banning online sports betting operators from using athletes in their ads unless it's to tout responsible gambling practices.

Furthermore, the new gambling code would be in addition to the national framework for advertising that Canadian senators are considering as part of Bill S-269. 

The Senate of Canada's Transport and Communications Committee meeting on Tuesday was one of several held in connection with the bill, which indeed proposes a national framework for sports betting advertising.

Line by line, clause by clause

More than 20 witnesses have now given testimony to the committee regarding the legislation, in addition to written submissions that have been provided since the bill was introduced in June 2023.

The Senate committee is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday for "clause-by-clause" consideration of the proposed legislation, after which the members could advance the bill and send it back to the full Senate for more debate and possibly further approvals. 

S-269 must pass the appointed Senate and the elected House of Commons before it can become law, and there is no guarantee that will happen. Even so, the Senate committee is poised to move the legislation along.

The bill is being debated in the wake of the decriminalization of single-game sports betting in Canada in 2021 and the launch of a competitive iGaming market in Ontario in 2022, two catalysts for a burst of advertising from companies such as bet365, DraftKings, and FanDuel. That advertising grated on some viewers and caused concern, including fears about the normalization of gambling.

Moreover, senators are discussing the need for the legislation as Alberta is readying its own competitive iGaming market that is expected to mirror to at least some extent what Ontario has done. As in Ontario, Alberta could impose its own province-specific advertising restrictions for sports betting and online casino operators. 

In the meantime, the Senate committee has been given a lot of information to digest. Some of the more recent testimony suggests that the amount of sports betting and iGaming advertising has fallen and that a national framework is unnecessary.  “Provinces have the tools and are in the best position to regulate,” Paul Burns, the president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, told the Senate committee on Tuesday. “[An] additional layer of federal regulation is not required.”

Catherine MacLeod, president and chief executive officer of thinktv, a marketing and research association funded by broadcasters such as Bell Media and the CBC, told the committee that gambling advertising “represents a small proportion” of all the ads it reviews. 

The association reviewed 442 online gambling ads in 2022, MacLeod said, which fell to 299 in 2023. As of last week, MacLeod added, 189 of the 28,000 video ads thinktv has reviewed so far this year were tied to online sports betting or casino gambling. 

“We are forecasting ending the year with 60 fewer ads than we reviewed in 2023, which follows the typical pattern for new product launches in television advertising,” MacLeod told the committee.