The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) will deliver its gambling harm prevention program at 40 publicly funded colleges and universities across Ontario during the 2026-27 academic year.
Key Takeaways
- RGC’s gambling harm prevention program will expand to 40 Ontario college and university campuses.
- It aims to reach 10,000 students and hand out over 10,000 Student Education Kits.
- Supported by iGaming Ontario, the program will promote responsible gambling tools like BetGuard.
Following the RGC’s partnership with iGaming Ontario, the program has expanded from 20 campuses to 40 and aims to reach 10,000 students. The collaboration will also support the distribution of over 10,000 Student Education Kits throughout the academic year.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the initiative uses trained representatives to provide students with information about gambling-related risks, harm prevention, and available support.
Funded by Ontario’s Ministry of Health, this year’s program will feature The Random Tower, a life-sized Jenga-style activity designed to demonstrate the role of randomness and factors outside an individual’s control in gambling and sports betting outcomes.
Student Education Kits will also be distributed through campus health, wellness, residence, and student services teams. They will include information on gambling harm prevention and details about Ontario’s self-exclusion program for regulated online gambling, BetGuard.
The tool was launched by iGaming Ontario in the interest of the Ontario government, and it allows users to exclude themselves from all regulated Ontario sports betting sites.
The RGC’s gambling harm prevention program is aimed at students aged 18 to 24, a demographic identified by the council as being at increased risk of gambling-related harm. The organization said that approximately 70% of young people living in Ontario attend college or university.
Earlier this month, a study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences revealed a sharp rise in emergency department visits linked to gambling disorders in Ontario. Males aged 10 to 29 saw visits increase 154%, while men aged 30 to 44 rose 116% during the 14-year study period.
Sarah McCarthy, the CEO of the RGC, said, “Young adults are growing up in a world where betting is woven into how they watch and talk about sports. Meeting students on campus, in the moments that matter, is how we help them understand the risks and know their options. With iGaming Ontario’s support, we can now do that on almost all publicly funded campuses in the province.”
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iGaming Ontario reports 19.7% increase in betting handle
The partnership comes as Ontario’s online gambling market continues to generate increased betting activity, with iGaming Ontario recording CAD$9.7 billion in total cash wagers in August this year, marking a 19.7% year-over-year rise compared to last August’s CAD$8.1 billion.
The organization’s total non-adjusted gross gaming revenue (NAGGR) also grew in August, rising 18.2% to CAD$396 million from CAD$335 million in the same month last year.
Monthly active player accounts also saw an increase in August, expanding to 1,208 from 1,016 in August 2025, representing a 15.9% year-over-year increase.
Ontario online casino gaming accounted for most of the market share, representing 90% of total cash wagers, with sports betting and peer-to-peer poker accounting for the remaining 9% and 1%, respectively.
