A decade ago, most stories of youth gambling started with buying a scratch ticket, making a bet in the lunchroom, and for many young men, it meant placing bets after school with video game items. Today, those stories start on smartphones and on social media, with students spinning slots on unregulated offshore casinos.
Gambling reform needs to be an immediate discussion for this government. Across the country, youth gambling has surged to new heights. This rapid growth is shaped by new technology, industry adaptation, and regulatory gaps. In 2019, one-third of Ontario students reported gambling in the past year. CAMH cites an increase of 132% in the number of wagers for online casinos. A generation is being groomed for gambling addiction through readily available online casino access, influencer-driven promotions, and a regulatory system with limited guardrails on how these casinos reach Canadian youth.
Young men are particularly at risk, with digital culture and gaming creating a pathway to more serious gambling harm. Many remember watching popular influencers risk thousands of dollars in digital items, often using affiliate codes, making high-stakes betting seem entertaining and routine. This normalization started with virtual goods, skins and loot boxes, on third-party platforms that bypassed age checks altogether. These platforms allowed kids to gamble without oversight, helping embed gambling in adolescent online culture and smoothing the transition from video game wagering to online casino betting.
However now there’s a whole new side to the problem with offshore casinos. Enter platforms like Rainbet or Stake. Online casinos registered in Curaçao that have aggressively targeted youth through influencer marketing. The platform offers affiliate commissions for every referred customer that remains active. An article on New Zealand outlet Critic cites a source that says some of these offshore casinos are offering up to $170 daily to those who post 5 times a day on their accounts. This has become a problem in Canada as well with popular musician Drake being a large proponent of marketing the Stake casino. Releasing videos online of him spinning slots and betting insane amounts of money.
The scale of this influencer-driven marketing is unprecedented. For those embedded in online culture, it is nearly impossible to avoid: Instagram reels, TikTok challenges, and viral clips all echo the same message, gamble for glory, chase massive wins. Yet, these posts rarely show losses or the real consequences, and most influencers are spending casino-supplied promotional funds, not their own.
Outside of the off-shore problem, there’s regulated online casinos that have been set up in Canada for legal online gambling. Since sports betting was legalized in Canada in 2021, advertisements have saturated sports broadcasts watched by millions of youth.
Canada’s regulatory response has been deplorably inadequate. Unlike alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco, there are no federal regulations regulating gambling advertising, marketing, and promotion. The provincial responses are not adequate.
Canada’s contrast with New Zealand’s approach is striking. Faced with surging youth gambling rates and growing concern over offshore marketing, New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs mounted a comprehensive crackdown in 2025. Authorities issued NZ$125,000 in fines to social media influencers for illegal online gambling promotion, sent cease-and-desist letters to dozens of accounts, and took enforcement actions against both influencers and operators. Regulators emphasized zero tolerance for manipulative digital advertising, focusing special attention on protecting vulnerable youth and Indigenous groups disproportionately harmed by gambling campaigns.
Legislation is being further tightened, New Zealand’s Online Gambling Bill will soon mandate strict licensing requirements and increase penalties, including up to NZ$5 million for unlicensed casino operators. Section 16 of their Gambling Act explicitly outlaws advertising by overseas gambling operators to New Zealanders, creating real legal jeopardy for repeat violators. In practice, influencers now risk steep financial penalties and prosecution for marketing offshore casinos, sending a clear deterrent to both content creators and the gambling industry.
Ontario released their own bill that banned athletes and celebrities from iGaming advertising in February of 2024, but operators immediately found loopholes. Now, the Senate recently tabled a Bill S-211 that would create a national framework to regulate sports bettering advertising, and would require the Minister of Canadian Heritage alongside the CRTC to develop regulations restricting advertising volume, content, and celebrity involvement.
It is time for a comprehensive rethink. We need federal regulation on gambling marketing and promotion, effective age verification on all platforms, and a real commitment to problem gambling prevention.
Ryan Comeau is a contributor to TrendingPolitics.ca
