Sports betting is easier than ever and gambling addiction experts are worried
CBC
These days it's hard to avoid sports betting ads, with Wayne Gretzky and Auston Matthews coming through your TV screen, or billboards and bus ads rushing by you on the commute.
That has addiction experts concerned that newly-loosened sports betting laws and the accompanying ads could create challenges for current problem gamblers, and create new problem gamblers from a young age.
Noah Vineberg, 48, says it certainly hasn't been easy for him. He calls himself a compulsive gambler in recovery, now celebrating four years of abstinence. And he says he's thankful he didn't have to deal with the influx and ease of sports gambling before he stopped.
"You can't sit down to watch anything on TV and get through an hour without watching multiple gambling ads," said the father of four in an interview with White Coat, Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman.
Vineberg, who lives in Ottawa, started gambling in high school, through a form of parlay betting called Pro Line, which is betting that involves correctly predicting at least three different events to receive the pay out.
But now, there are many more options.
In 2021, the federal government made it legal to gamble on individual sporting events, giving provinces the ability to regulate it themselves.
Before that, six provinces allowed parlay betting. The 2021 bill allowed for single-game bets, such as the outcome of the Super Bowl.
Ontario became the first province to create a regulated sports betting program, which launched in April, and with it came the onslaught of ads. Even if you change channels during the commercials, sports broadcasters are talking about it during games, which, for sports fans, makes it nearly impossible to avoid.
And experts say the way sports gambling has evolved is dangerous, too.
David Hodgins, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Calgary and co-ordinator with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, says slot machines and casino games are some of the riskiest forms of gambling because they provide instant results.
Sports gambling has evolved to become much like slot machines, he said. People can now bet on minute details of a game, not just its results, giving people that same constant source of gambling as when they play the slots.
"You can bet online, 24 hours a day, on multiple different types of sports," said Hodgins.
"It's becoming more like slot machine betting in terms of being very fast paced. So there is a concern that that will be problematic for some people."
A decision over how the provincial government regulates moose hunting in a First Nation's traditional territory now rests with a Manitoba judge, whose ruling will be precedent-setting, lawyers in the case say.
A teenager diagnosed with bird flu in British Columbia is the first domestically acquired human case of H5N1 avian influenza, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.
The Manitoba government made a "political compromise" in its decision to issue a reduced number of moose hunting licences to non-Indigenous hunters in northern parts of the province earlier this year, a lawyer representing a First Nation in the area has argued in court.
If it weren't for a stem cell transplant — less than half a cup of blood from a stranger's umbilical cord — four-year-old Tristan Ford would almost certainly have died as an infant, his parents say.
A Métis saddle from the early 1800s is at the centre of an exhibit that opened last month at a Swiss museum, along with contemporary beadwork created by other Red River Métis artists.
A dome-shaped device floating in Halifax's Northwest Arm could easily be confused with a buoy, but it is actually a contraption meant to turn ocean water into fresh water.
As of Tuesday, there are limits on the number of bottles of spirits a person can buy at the B.C. Liquor store in Tofino, a move that leaders of the Ahousaht First Nation were pushing for.
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
Mohawk code talkers and their missions were so vital during the Second World War, that some believe without them, there was no way of winning of the war.
Two feisty ferret babies in Virginia are being hailed as a symbol of hope for the future of their species.
On day one of Donald Trump's presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he'll be advising Trump to take fluoride out of public water. The former independent presidential hopeful — and prominent proponent of debunked public health claims — has been told he'll be put in charge of health initiatives in the new Trump administration. He's described fluoride as "industrial waste."