Wednesday Talk: September 30, 10am-12pm – hybrid
September 30 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Bruce Kidd, Sports Policy, Kinesiology, U of T
Title: “The Challenges of Sports Betting”
Abstract: Canada legalized sports betting in 2021, but did so without guardrails, despite the abundant international evidence of predictable harms and the warnings of critical MPs. With the creation of an open market for gambling in Ontario, competition between the gambling companies has unleashed a tsunami of advertising on both traditional and social media across Canada, so much so that CBC Marketplace has estimated that 25% of sports broadcasts now comprise ads, and broadcasters openly promote betting as a essential part of sports. The betting sites are engineered to addict and the ads intensify the volume and addiction of betting. Since legalization, the percentage of Canadians who display ‘problem gambling’, which is consistent with addiction, has risen from 1.3% to 9.9%. Gambling addiction is the hardest form of addiction to cure. Medical and scientific bodies call it a ‘public health crisis’. Sports betting has also perverted the culture of sports, and created new risks for athletes. This talk will address the challenges of sports betting in Canada, and discuss on the various efforts to ban or restrict the ads and otherwise limit the harm to sports, children, youth and other vulnerable persons.
Bio: Bruce Kidd is a professor emeritus of sports policy and a former dean, principal and ombudsperson at U of T. He currently chairs the NGO, the Campaign to Ban Ads for Gambling.
The link to register is coming soon.
The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
