‘It becomes their sole focus’: Gambling disorder ER visits have nearly doubled in Ontario; here’s what an expert has to say

Emergency Room (ER) visits for gambling disorders have nearly doubled in Ontario since the province expanded its online gaming market, research shows. One expert breaks down what’s driving the trend and what warning signs families should watch for.​

According to research conducted by the University of Toronto, ER visits have nearly doubled, predominantly among young men, since the legalization of single-event sports betting and the expansion of Ontario’s online gambling market.

Currently, 43 private companies operate 83 gaming and betting sites in Ontario’s online legal gambling market.

Over a 14-year study period, 757 people had a total of 952 emergency department visits in which a gambling disorder was the main reason for the visit. Out of these 757 individuals, almost three-quarters were men.

The observed number is 154 per cent higher than expected for men aged 10 to 29.

‘It becomes their sole focus’: An expert speaks on gambling’s impact

​Bruce Kidd, University of Toronto sports policy professor and chair of the Campaign to Ban Ads for Gambling, dissects the surge and why it matters.

“It’s both a larger phenomenon with the advertising on social media, making sports betting an attractive form of recreation, normalizing it, telling everybody that it’s fun, then a large number of youth are attracted to it,” Kidd tells Now Toronto.

“It’s a result of deliberate engineering to addict young people to sports betting and online casinos,” he added.

Kidd explained that people keep gambling for the dopamine and the adrenaline rush from making a bet: win or lose.

“It becomes a complete preoccupation. Coaches and athletic directors tell me that young athletes are betting all the time in the dressing room, on the bus or even on the bench,” Kidd said. “It becomes their sole focus.”

Gambling can also impact one’s finances, relationships, work and mental health, Kidd explained.

“If they’re students, they can lose their tuition or residence money. [Others] can max out their credit card and go into debt. They can become very depressed, so there are a number of mental health issues associated with it… It’s all downhill,” he said.

From physically placing a bet to doing it online: Kidd on how easier gambling can cause more trouble

Kidd recalls growing up in an era where to gamble, you had to physically go to a track or call an illegal bookmaker. Now, betting can be done with a few buttons on your phone.

“Today, it’s on your phone, and with prop bets, you can bet on any aspect of the game… It used to be just on the outcome. Now, there are in-play bets, and there could be 500 bet possibilities within a single game, so the number of possible bets has increased by hundreds of times,” Kidd explained.

So, he warns parents, teachers and coaches to look out for patterns.

“Young kids are on their phones all the time, so ask supportively what they’re texting or doing,” Kidd said.

When is it time to visit a hospital for a gambling addiction?

Kidd said it’s time to visit an ER as soon as they realize they’ve “lost control of their lives.”

“It’s not so much the breaking point, but the realization that their lives are spinning up… They’ve lost their financial support, their important relationships, their parents have kicked them out of the house, their romantic partner… It could be any one of a number of things,” Kidd shared.

He explained that admitting a crisis and going to the hospital is a positive step and can help.

“What’s really scary is that there are thousands, if not millions, of young Canadians who are well before that point-they’re-they’re in this cycle of addiction, but they don’t realize how serious it is, and they’re not asking for help,” Kidd said.

As online betting becomes more accessible than ever to the young generations, Kidd hopes the Canadian government will ban advertising to prevent new gambling-based ER admissions.