The Canadian Senate is dead set on curbing sports betting-related advertising in the country.
- The Canadian Senate has passed Bill S-211, which seeks to regulate sports betting advertising, sending the legislation to the House of Commons for further debate.
- The bill aims to create a national framework that could limit the volume, placement, and use of celebrities in sports betting ads, without imposing a full ban.
- Supporters argue federal action is needed to address widespread ad exposure, while critics claim provinces are already managing the issue effectively.
Canada’s so-called chamber of sober second thought passed Bill S-211 on Tuesday, sending the proposed “National Framework on Sports Betting Advertising Act” and its potential for additional marketing restrictions to the elected House of Commons for further debate and scrutiny.
S-211 passed third reading in the Senate on a voice vote, with no one speaking out against its approval. It’s also the second time the appointed Senate has passed this type of legislation, with the previous effort sitting in the House before former prime minister Justin Trudeau's resignation killed it in January.
However, the reintroduction and passage of the anti-ad legislation in the Senate show the lingering feeling among some Canadian lawmakers that they dropped the ball in 2021 when they legalized single-game sports wagering in the country without any advertising-related restrictions.
Bill S-211, which proposes additional restrictions on sports betting-related advertising in Canada, just passed the appointed Senate and now heads to the elected House of Commons.
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) October 21, 2025
Will have a fresh story, but wrote about it last week as well:https://t.co/aVmRg0BBhu @Covers pic.twitter.com/8v6S2Qbzru
Since then, concerns have grown about sports betting-related advertising seen by Canadians, particularly after Ontario launched a regulated iGaming market in 2022 that permitted private-sector operators to participate.
“Honourable senators, this is a problem we bear,” said Ontario Sen. Marty Deacon, Bill S-211’s sponsor, in the Senate on Tuesday. “We bear responsibility for it. I include myself in this, as I voted for Bill C-218 (the single-game sports betting bill). Getting the bill before us to the floor of the other place (the House), will go a long way in trying to make this right.”
If S-211 passes the House and becomes law, it would require the federal Minister of Canadian Heritage to craft “a national framework on sports betting advertising.”
That framework would, among other things, identify ways to regulate those ads “with a view to restricting the use of such advertising, limiting the number, scope or location - or a combination of these - of the advertisements or to limiting or banning the participation of celebrities and athletes in the promotion of sports betting.”
Not necessarily a ban, but a ban if necessary
What Bill S-211 won’t do, Deacon said, is ban gambling ads outright. While Deacon would be supportive of such a ban, she noted there are potential complications tied to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”
“I do appreciate there are Charter implications in (a ban) and believe if I had sought a complete ban through this legislation, it would have had certainly a rougher ride,” Deacon said Tuesday. “As the saying goes, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If, after this bill becomes law, or even before, the government decides a full ban is warranted, I would not be happier.”
Although that would be up to the federal government to decide, Deacon said there are things that Ottawa could do in crafting the national framework "short of a full ban."
One, she suggested, could be a “whistle-to-whistle ban” on sports betting-related advertising, prohibiting such marketing from five minutes before to five minutes after a game.
“It's my hope that this would include sponsored intermission and halftime segments, which sees talking heads giving betting ads instead of the game analysis we're used to,” Deacon added.
First, though, S-211 will have to clear the House. That could prove to be more of a challenge than the bill’s passage through the Senate, which had already given the OK to such legislation last year.
Slow your role
The sports betting industry has voiced its concerns about S-211 as well, namely that provinces are better suited for such regulation and that the boom in ads is already fading.
“Bill S-211 is unnecessary as what it aims to do is already being undertaken by Provincial governments, their agencies, gaming industry stakeholders, and a network of academic research organizations,” Canadian Gaming Association CEO Paul Burns wrote in a letter to a Senate committee.
Yet, senators were not persuaded by these arguments, and time will tell if members of the House will be. In the meantime, the Toronto Blue Jays' playoff run means a lot of Canadians are tuning into the games and seeing a fair amount of sports betting-related advertising.
A lot of those ads are for Ontario-licensed operators, as the province is the only one in Canada that has regulated and authorized private-sector entities to take bets. The spillover of these Ontario sports betting ads has been a source of frustration in other provinces, where the only authorized options for sports betting are owned by the provinces themselves.
Furthermore, the push for federal restrictions on sports betting-related advertising comes ahead of the launch of a new Alberta sports betting market, which is expected to happen next year. That could mean another Ontario-like iGaming market and a potential burst of advertising as operators try to scoop up customers in the western province.
“To date, every other province or territory only allows for single sports betting through their own lottery corporations,” Deacon said Tuesday. “And yet, I have heard from Canadians from coast to coast to coast that they grow tired and increasingly concerned from seeing these Ontario-based ads as a result.”
