Doctors are asking for restrictions on sports betting ads, saying they are preparing young people for a future of gambling.
“I have seen the lives of people to crumble at all ages, from all areas of life, be it an accountant with a career behind him, or a child who only seeks to maximize his university fund that had later lost everything in a matter of a few weeks,” said Family doctor Dr. Shannon Charlebois, who is also the medical editor of the magazine of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ).
Charlebois and Dr. Shawn Kelly published An editorial In the CMAJ, Monday on how betting ads are everywhere during sports transmissions and the legalization of the online game has made each smartphone a possible betting platform.
Even if the ads are not aimed at young people, they still see them and are affected, said Kelly, who watches sports with their twin children.
“These ads are not aimed at nine -year -olds sitting with me, but they are collecting it,” said Kelly, who is a specialist in adolescents.
An emerging problem
While Kelly focuses mainly on cases of substance use, he works with all addictive disorders and has begun to detect the behavior of the game, something that he believes is an emerging problem.
“I have seen an increase in damage from the game in minor people of age where they should be legally allowed to participate in any game,” News told CBC on Monday.
“The typical story I see at the clinic is a 13 or 14 -year -old boy who has borrowed from the dad credit card, or Mom’s credit card, is dedicated to some online bets and lost a significant amount of money.”
A recent report by the McCeary Center Society analyzed the findings of the BC adolescence health survey in 2023, which was completed by more than 38,000 young people from 12 to 18 years in 59 of the 60 school districts of BC. Annie Smith, co -author of the report, said the online game activity had increased among young people since the last survey in 2018.
Kelly says that game addiction still has a lot of stigma, so people try to hide it and can doubt in seeking treatment.
He says that Norway’s studies, the United Kingdom and Canada have shown that hundreds of teenagers report loss to moderately severe game problems. He points out that this has been the greatest increase in concern in its clinic and can create financial and emotional stress for both young people involved and their families.
Long -term damage to game addiction
Kelly says there are also other associated damages that come with game problems.
“We know that the use of substances increases, we know that another crime or crime also increases,” he said, adding that there may also be an increase in suicide associated with play behaviors.
Dr. Nigel Turner, scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, told CBC News that most people who have play problems later in life begin before the age of 19.
“In general, it is something that happens throughout life,” Turner said. “If you start playing when you are young, you establish a habit of playing that you can echo throughout your life and lead you to serious financial problems.”
TO Report 2024 For the Lancet Public Health Commission on the game, he said that the game “raises a substantial threat to public health” and urged governments to mitigate public health damages.
“When people reach that point in their playing career, where they can no longer find resources and are desperate for money [and] ashamed of how much they have lost … suicide is something that many players will contemplate as their only way, “Turner said.
Efforts to limit exposure to young people
Charlebois says that while betting sites say they are only for people over 19, young people are being flooded with advertising that is equivalent to enjoying sports with bets.
She says that children and adolescents are still developing and constant exposure to game messages normalizes harmful behaviors that can lead to adulthood.
“What is very dangerous for this for children is that it is normalizing a harmful behavior known during an impressionable stage. And it is really attractive in particular for young people who are genetically and biologically predisposed to enjoy risks,” he said.
The professor of the University of Toronto, Bruce Kidd, former athletic athlete and president of a campaign to ban game ads, said CBC Monday on the coast that ads poison the idea of sport and are adding to a growing number of people in very serious forms of psychological damage.
Charlebois says that a bill has been introduced to regulate the advertising of sports bets in the Senate and, if approved, it would be a good start to address the problem.
He would like to see the restricted game advertising during the games and withdrawal from the social networks platforms used by young people.
“There is no limit on how many of these ads can be placed within a sports transmission or how long they can be,” said Charlebois, noting that, in addition to commercials, the names of sports betting platforms are projected on football fields and hockey tracks.
Since 2021, when the federal legislation loosen the rules around sports bets, Ontario has gone at full speed, creating what many have called a Wild West game environment. Jamie Strashin of CBC explores how single -game bets have changed the game for some fans and why addiction experts are worried.
Restriction Education
“There is a lot of advertising regulation,” said on Monday Paul Burns, president and CEO of the Canadian Games Association (CGA) to CBC News. “
Burns says that CGA has been tracking the data and that online game ads represent approximately two percent of total television ads and approximately five percent of total television expense.
“Even in the NHL playoffs last year, a gambling company did not turn the 10 best advertisers,” he said, and pointed out that betting ads in the NHL broadcasts were in four percent last year, below six percent of the previous year.
He agrees that it is important that advertising is carried out in a responsible manner, especially when it comes to youth, but believes in education and consciousness instead of limiting access.
