“Show me a gambler and I’ll show you a loser.”

— Mario Puzo

Although it’s not really available here in Manitoba, Manitobans are nonetheless exposed to tidal waves of advertising for legalized sports gambling. But when more and more people wager on sports, who really wins?

The Macro

You may have heard that one of the biggest sports gambling events in history is unfolding in Germany right now: the UEFA Euro 2024 championship. The event has also involved some top-flight soccer.

Large global or continental soccer tournaments typically draw eyeballs from fanatics all over the world. And given that online gambling is now offered in just about every country in the world (only about 10 countries make any attempt to ban gambling), you can bet that the money is flying fast and free.

How much will be bet on Euro 2024? There aren’t a lot of great estimates, but Thailand’s gambling regulator published a report just prior to the start of the tournament that estimated citizens were going to wager more than $1.6 billion on the tournament. And that’s just in Thailand.

Given the potential for wagering, it’s not surprising the tournament’s Canadian broadcaster — TSN — has ramped up its promotion of online betting to hilarious proportions.

Broadcasters have served as the great enablers since Ontario became the only jurisdiction in Canada to allow full and unfettered sports wagering. Both Sportsnet and TSN have embedded commentary on who and what to bet on as part of their regular sportscasts.

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But at Euro 2024, it’s reached a whole new absurd height.

TSN’s Euro 2024 homepage includes individual game pages that are supposed to provide content before, during and after the matches. These game pages are typically an opportunity to check team/individual statistics and, one hour before matches, the starting lineups for each team.

And what does TSN offer soccer fans before games?

TSN’s pregame pages have no content on the teams or players, but do have a complex wagering grid and a link to Fanduel, TSN’s sports book of choice.

As the tournament approaches the quarterfinal stage (last eight teams), TSN has provided some very basic team statistics, but no other content. But the odds are still there.

Combined with the constant barrage of advertisements and handicap commentary during the broadcasts, it starts to feel like the soccer is not really the point of TSN’s coverage.

The most maddening part of all this is that the massive increase in online sports and casino betting — evidenced by the Euro coverage — is unfolding as experts warn us that an online wagering addictions time-bomb is about to go off.

The Canadian Mental Health Association has been begging the Ontario government to limit the promotion of online gambling and to invest more money in treatment and support.

To date, those pleas have fallen on deaf ears, largely because online gambling has become a very lucrative business for government.

A report released June 19 by iGaming Ontario, the province’s online gambling regulator, revealed that Ontarians wagered nearly $2.5 billion on all forms of online gaming in 2023, generating more than $1.2 billion in revenues for government: Ontario received $790 million, with $380 million carved off for Ottawa and $75 million to municipalities.

Given the money at stake, it’s unlikely anyone will move to curb online wagering, despite research showing the devastating impact it’s having on gamblers, particularly younger ones.

Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health raised the alarm and is particularly concerned about youth gambling because a 2019 survey of high-school-age youth showed that one-third of all students reported one or more gambling activities in 2019. More than four per cent reported mild to severe gambling problems. That is twice the rate for older gamblers.

Given the deluge of advertising around sports betting — which is particularly appealing to youth — the CAMH is obviously concerned about the skyrocketing rates of participation and problem gambling among youth.

The issue got further exposure in May when police busted an illegal online gambling operation in Orillia, Ont., that targeted high school students. Police were alerted after several students were threatened with death or bodily harm over unpaid gambling debts.

Will Ontario heed the warnings, and the experiences from other countries that are already severely restricting online gambling, to help ease the addictions epidemic?

I wouldn’t bet on it.