The Ontario Liberal Party announces its new leader in seven days. What will change?
The public pushback on online gambling could begin in earnest.
One of us is a young fighter campaigning to be the next leader, and the other retired politician in his corner. We’re aligned on many issues. But addressing the harm of online gambling is certainly one of them. And our campaign has committed to banning it.
The Ford government brought a new “digital crack cocaine of gambling” to Ontario. Widespread online casino and sports betting combine the worst of the most addictive properties of gaming and social media with a direct line to a casino in the user’s pocket at all hours of the day or night.
In just a few years, the government exploded Ontario into one of the most wide-open jurisdictions for online gambling anywhere. It has licensed over 40 companies operating over 80 web platforms with ads blaring at every turn or click. In 2025-26 online gaming player losses/company net proceeds in Ontario are projected to be at least $4.7 billion, 300% more than the inaugural year in 2023.
We do know helpline calls from young men have tripled, gambled related insolvencies have spiked.
A study conducted at UC San Diego, tracking over 700,000 online gamblers over a five-year period, found that approximately 96% of players are net losers. The authors say that this is a "mathematical inevitability built into these products by design." Another study shows that about 20 per cent of users, account for 80 percent of losses.
Further, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction found that seven of ten users who are 18-to-29-year-old players fall into the category of moderate to severe financial or psychological distress. That’s not entertainment. It’s exploitation.
As the Toronto Star's investigative team recently reported, the Ford government has secretly suppressed internal research quantifying the harms.
We want Ontario to be known around the world – for our postsecondary institutions, as the world’s best skilled workforce, with abundant resources and diverse, enterprising people, among other things that make our province great. But it says everything you need to know about Doug Ford’s Ontario that we’re now known as a paradise for online gambling companies.
The politics and economics behind Ontario’s lurch into online gaming is tragically ironic.
Doug Ford makes much about his trade war stand against American liquor in LCBO. At the same time, he is giving billions to the private gaming operators, who are mainly American, having conceded a whopping 80% share of the proceeds to them. (Even neighbouring New York insists on keeping 50%, while limiting their private online wagering to sports only).
Beneficiaries Draft Kings and FanDuel are on record as having given about $500,000 each to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration celebration. The U.S. industry was the third-largest corporate donor in the U.S. midterm elections, behind only crypto and technology, according to Public Citizen estimates.
Doug Ford introduced online gambling out of nowhere in his first Budget. The idea was never mentioned in the 2018 campaign. The NDP as Official Opposition, as well as Ontario Liberal MPPs, have stopped at half-measures, perhaps not willing to take on the political risks that come with a firm stand against special interests.
Ironically, we have seen this movie before. Thirty years ago, the Harris Conservative government tried to bring in an insidious new gambling technology of its own – Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) – the “original crack cocaine of gambling” into bars across the province. The Official Opposition of the day was able to channel public outrage, and the plan was stopped and limited to existing gaming sites.
After only four years, the online gambling industry is embedded. It has tentacles. But the ethical considerations are too important to look away. And we believe in Ontarians. Voters will support a party that fights to protect our people, particularly young men. The regret, the shame, the feelings of weakness and hopelessness are not what we want young men to feel.
Ontario needs a culture of ambition not a culture of addiction. The work to turn this around must begin now.
Dylan Marando is a candidate for Ontario Liberal Party leader. Gerard Kennedy is a former MP, MPP and Minister of Education
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