Sports Betting – A Brief History with Moral Questions
Photo by Amit Lahav on Unsplash
Written By: Matthew Lloyd
Sports betting is an industry and topic that many of us are now familiar with, thanks to the omnipresent nature of betting advertisements. This industry, popularized through illegal online bets for years, has exploded with the introduction of legal methods to gamble on the sports we all know and love. People can place bets not only on major events, but also on obscure ones many have never even heard of.This article is my first with The SMU Journal, and I wanted to highlight a few elements of this topic. I will focus on both the sheer volume of cash this industry moves in Canada, alongside the dangers it poses uniquely to our University population as technology and regulation elevate the risk to young adults.
Sports Betting in Canada has a lengthy history, with much of the money Canadians have invested in the industry being illegal and unregulated. Gambling was mentioned in Canadian law for the first time in 1892, where "under the Criminal Code of Canada, gambling was generally prohibited unless the government specifically authorized it" (Montreal Times, n.d). These authorizations included exemptions for "horse wagering alongside games at small midways, or carnivals across the country" (Warren, 2022), with horse wagering already attracting a sizable following dating back to the 18th century (Past the Wire, 2023), prior to any regulation. While there were some minor tweaks to the Criminal Code later in the 20th century, it was not until 1985 that Bill C-290 amended the Criminal Code to transfer control over gambling to individual provinces (Hurry, 2023). This amendment permitted limited legal sports betting while maintaining restrictions on single-event sports betting due to concerns about match-fixing. Finally, we arrive at 2021, where the Code was changed one final time with the passage of Bill C-218, which legalized single-event sports betting across the nation in a bid to win back customers from offshore sites, U.S. casinos, and illegal bookmakers (The Canadian Press, 2021)
Sports betting has become a significant aspect of how we consume sports, whether we like it or not. Sports television broadcasters, such as TSN, have integrated sports betting partners into their coverage, signing a "first-of-its-kind multi-year agreement" (TSN, 2022) with FanDuel, a major player in the United States. FanDuel originally started as a daily fantasy sports platform in the USA, eventually transitioning to a full-service sportsbook offering bets alongside their fantasy sports games while capturing a significant portion of the online sports gambling market. This move aligned with the Ontario provincial government's aggressive approach to its regulatory body, iGaming Ontario, allowing established American companies that had long been used illegally by Canadians to enter the market legally. This move has forced betting line coverage into pregame and the halftime of Raptors games, as well as other sports.
One primary concern arose from the use of celebrity endorsements. Although regulations have now been passed requiring celebrities who endorse sports betting to only appear in responsible betting commercials (Milton, 2024), when the government originally passed Bill C-218, players such as Connor McDavid and hockey icon Wayne Gretzky were seen in commercials advocating for these platforms. These betting sites can cost users everything when proper limits are ignored. "We're telling young males—a vulnerable population—that gambling is a great thing to do and showing them someone they admire saying that," (Milton, 2024) stated Nigel Turner, a gambling hobbyist interviewed by Macleans in 2024.
This onslaught of advertisements, not just limited to broadcasts but also online through influencer collaborations, has been a significant success for provincial gaming organizations and the corporations backing them. In 2021, the year of full online legalization, revenue across Canada totalled $1.35 Billion. In 2024, this figure had already doubled, raking in $2.88 Billion (Statista, 2025). While gambling revenue has typically come from an older demographic as those established in the workforce have more money to spend, the "convenience through mobile applications lets people gamble whenever they wish… with this shift bringing on an increasing involvement of the young demographic" (Levy, 2025). This shift to 24/7 access and endless availability of niche sports and gamified offers has led to increasing revenues and a direct funnel into less skill-based online casino games. iGaming achieves its greatest revenue in this area from casino games and wagers, where outcomes are controlled by random number generators (RNGs) instead of unpredictable human actions in sports (Damjam,2024).
There have been some serious concerns regarding the widespread adoption of sports betting online in recent years, but is sports betting relatively harmless when done responsibly? When proper limits are imposed, whether by the user or the chosen platform, sports betting can be a fun way to engage more deeply with the sports. Measures such as daily, weekly, and monthly wager limits, as well as deposit limits and insights from these betting platforms that alert users when they may be going too far, are important to ensure that the industry, which many Canadians view as a hobby, remains a fun pastime that does not consume individuals. Understanding the dangers ahead of diving into betting is crucial to maintaining a healthy relationship with the pastime that many Canadians now regularly engage in.