Ontario problem gambling estimate triples to nearly 130,000 after private online market opens
Nearly 130,000 Ontarians now show signs of problem gambling, compared with roughly 43,000 in 2018, according to a CBC News investigation published on October 21, 2026. The estimates come from new research by the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI), which used the Problem Gambling Severity Index and data from Statistics Canada’s 2025 Canadian Community Health Survey.
The same investigation reported that gambling-related suicides in the province tripled after Ontario opened online casino games and sports betting to private operators in April 2022. In response, the provincial government cited its spending on responsible gambling programs and pointed to a new province-wide self-exclusion system.
What the AGRI research found
AGRI found a 0.5 percentage point rise in Ontario’s problem gambling rate compared with 2018. The figures describe people who meet the screening criteria for problem gambling, which is a different measure from a count of clinical diagnoses.
Researcher Carrie Shaw, who presented the findings at an AGRI conference in May, described the work to CBC as “brand new” and significant. According to Shaw, the number of problem gamblers in Ontario climbed in the six months after the private market opened, while it dropped in the rest of Canada.
“In Ontario’s market, gambling is very much normalized through access and advertisements,” she said.
Shaw added that online play removes the barriers that once limited access to gambling. “You can access it anytime from your computer, your mobile phone, any time of day or night,” she told CBC, noting that a person can be sitting at a desk at work and still be engaging.
Coroner data and helpline studies point the same way
The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario recorded an average of five gambling-related suicides a year from 2016 to 2021, before the expansion. CBC reported that the number tripled after 2022.
Two peer-reviewed studies cited in the coverage show a similar pattern in help-seeking and hospital data. A March 2026 paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal analyzed 745,716 contacts to the ConnexOntario helpline between January 2012 and September 2025, of which 37,087 were gambling-related. The mean monthly rate of gambling contacts per million people aged 15 and over was 13.4 before the PlayOLG platform launched in January 2015, 17.0 after that launch and 26.2 following the 2022 private expansion. The increases were concentrated almost entirely among boys and men aged 15 to 44.
A September 2026 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found a sharp rise in people with gambling disorders arriving in distress at Ontario emergency departments.
Province responds as researchers call for monitoring
Matthew Young, chief research officer at the non-profit research network Greo Evidence Insights, told CBC he called on government two years ago to track online gambling activity more closely, for fear of increased addiction, bankruptcies and suicides. “We warned that we might be seeing the harms that we’re now seeing in the data,” he said, adding that those calls were ignored. Greo, formerly the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, was defunded by the province in 2019.
The Ontario government said it has spent $421 million on responsible gambling education, research and addiction treatment since 2018. A spokesperson added that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation spent nearly $159 million on its PlaySmart program, which provides player protection tools and links to support services.
The statement also pointed to BetGuard, a centralized system launched by iGaming Ontario in 2026 that lets players self-exclude from all regulated online gaming sites through one registration. Alberta joined Ontario in July in legalizing privately run online gambling, which remained illegal in the other provinces at the time of the report.
Support is available through ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 or by texting CONNEX to 247247, and through Gamblers Anonymous at 1-855-222-5542.
