Throughout Ontario, self-exclusion data indicates neighbourhoods surrounding brick-and-mortar casinos are hot spots for self-identified problem gamblers.
This finding comes from data supplied by Ontario Lottery & Gaming, and compiled, analyzed, and reported by Village Media (VM). The outlet reports that the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is home to a concentration of players who have self-excluded through OLG’s self-exclusion program.
The OLG program, dubbed My PlayBreak, allows enrollees to ban themselves from Ontario’s in-person casinos and OLG-offered online play for up to five years. My PlayBreak uses facial recognition to track casino entries and ensure self-excluded players are kept off the casino floor. Those who later attempt to bypass their exclusion anyway risk a criminal trespass charge.
VM obtained partial postal codes of OLG’s self-excluded players under freedom of information laws to enable their analysis. After removing the data tied to those from the US and other Canadian provinces, about 22,600 Ontario residents have registered for My PlayBreak.
Ultimately, the data revealed the number of self-ID’d problem gamblers is significantly higher in casino-adjacent neighbourhoods than Ontario’s 16 people per 10,000 provincial average.
Self-exclusion rates nearly double near Ontario casinos
The GTA hosts three major casinos with self-exclusion programs for self-identified problem gamblers.
According to OLG’s data, many who self-excluded from the Casino at Great Canadian Toronto (formerly Woodbine) live in the surrounding neighbourhood. Out of the area’s population of nearly 245,000, 674 people registered for MyPlayBreak. That result, VM points out, is roughly double the amount expected based on the provincial average.
The data for the Durham region—which hosts casinos in Pickering and Ajax—shows similarly high rates of self-excluded gamblers in both communities.
In the case of Casino Ajax, 84 residents have self-excluded out of a population of 28,446. Likewise, at Pickering Casino Resort, 62 of 19,481 locals have banned themselves from casino properties. As with the Great Canadian Casino Toronto, these results are nearly twice the provincial average. Self-exclusion rates were also above the average in nearby Whitby and Oshawa.
Further, the data reveals similarities outside the GTA near casinos in Brantford, Gloucester, London, Orillia, Peterborough, Sarnia, Sault Ste, Marie, Thunder Bay, Windsor, and Woodstock.
In an interview, Renze Nauta of Cardus—a nonpartisan think tank that studies gambling—told VM the uncovered data indicates a clear trend.
“The more accessible gambling is to someone, the more likely they are to self-identify as a problem gambler—and that’s not surprising with an activity that, for some people, is highly addictive.”
Trend continues across Can-US border
The Ontario region with the highest rate of self-excluded gamblers shares a postal code with Caesars Windsor. In that area, 276 residents—equal to about 1% of the population—have registered for self-exclusion.
The second-highest population of self-excluded gamblers is in urban Thunder Bay, near Gateway Casino. With over 500 MyPlayBreak registrants living in the P6C postal area, Sault Ste. Marie is another area with higher self-exclusion stats than the Ontario average.
Village Media also discovered that disproportionate problem gambling rates among those living near casinos is a problem spanning the US-Canada border.
According to OLG’s data, over 1,000 MyPlayBreak registrants have US addresses. Further, based on partial zip codes revealed in the data drop, many live in the Detroit area opposite the Caesars Windsor. Other US hot sports include Port Huron, Michigan, across from Sarnia’s casino, and Buffalo, NY, across the border opposite Casino Niagara.
Critics cite relationship between access and harm
In an interview, Robert Williams, a problem gambling expert at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, told VM a relationship exists between gambling access and harm.
Anything that has greater availability results in greater access. There’s a lot of literature on this general relationship between gambling availability and gambling harm.
According to Statistics Canada, close to 300,000 Canadians have a moderate-to-severe risk of experiencing problem gambling. The magnitude of harm associated with gambling problems is similarly associated with those of major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence.
Financially, problem gambling “can lead to challenges to family life and divorce,” said Nauta.
Williams added that problem gambling’s “significant genetic disposition” can lead to gambling issues resurfacing within families.
Electronic gambling machines, like slot machines and video lottery terminals, are more addictive than lottery tickets and raffles and bingo. The main thing that determines the addictiveness of a product is frequency of administration.
Is government too dependent on gambling revenue?
Each year, Ontario earns approximately $2.3 billion from gambling. According to a 2013 study, the province gets about 30% of those revenues from problem gamblers.
Williams told VM that other studies indicate self-excluded gamblers are frequently able to find ways to gamble anyway. He argues that Ontario casinos should adopt British Columbia’s system, which scans casino-goers’ IDs for cross-reference with the exclusion list.
He believes communities lose more than they gain from casino operations.
The main issue is that the large majority of casino revenue comes from local residents and most of this revenue gets sent to the provincial government. The fee the local municipality gets from the casino does not match the money that is lost.
In 2023, Toronto earned over $26 million from its share of Woodbine’s gambling revenue alone.
Many gambling advocates argue this revenue benefits local communities and can lead to other casino-related employment opportunities.
But Williams argues casino job creation fails to offset the money lost through gambling as most jobs are “cannibalized from other local service sector industries.”
In Nauta’s point of view, problem gamblers aren’t the only ones experiencing addiction.
The government itself has a bit of a gambling addiction problem. There’s a perverse incentive here for governments because the more gambling that takes place, the more tax revenue they can get in.
Bonus emailed the OLG for comment on Village Media’s findings but has not yet received a response.
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