Online gambling has more than doubled among young men in Montreal, even as the overall number of adults who gamble has declined, according to a new public health study.
The study surveyed 8,500 Montreal adults and found 39 per cent said they had engaged in some form of gambling in 2025, 15 per cent fewer than in 2018 and 2002.
But researchers say the trend is moving in the opposite direction among younger men.
The number of men between the ages of 18 and 34 who reported gambling online has more than doubled, according to the study.
Sylvia Kairouz, a Concordia University gambling researcher and one of the study’s authors, said the ease of accessing gambling sites through a phone can make it difficult for people to resist.
“When you just need to pick up your phone and push a button to gamble, that makes it very difficult to resist,” Kairouz said.
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“We have seen more interest in online gambling than in gambling in casinos or in any other physical location.”
Anne Elizabeth Lapointe, CEO of Maison Jean Lapointe, which offers treatment programs for gambling addiction, said the findings reflect what the organization is seeing among people seeking help.
“We have more and more young men seeking help for online gambling addiction,” she told Global News on Thursday.
Lapointe said that since the COVID pandemic, the organization has been helping far fewer people struggling with in-person slots or video lottery terminals, while online gambling has become a growing concern.
She said even minors are finding ways to gamble online, and that young people with little or no income can face serious consequences from their losses.
“For the last two years now, we’ve seen kids coming to our office with a gambling addiction or starting to have serious consequences to their gambling habits,” Lapointe said.
Kairouz said the abundance of gambling advertising is also contributing to the problem by making sports betting more socially acceptable.
The study found 75 per cent of those surveyed said they wished there were no advertisements at all for gambling sites.
Lapointe said gambling advertising needs to either be banned or more effectively regulated.
Kairouz also pointed to restrictions adopted elsewhere. “Spain has done it. Belgium has done [it]. So I think the lack of regulation is one of the major problems now,” she said.
For those who gamble, Kairouz recommends setting a budget and sticking to it. She said that over the long term, people who bet on sports will lose money because unpredictable outcomes are unavoidable.
“I have to say what we always say, the house always wins,” she said. “So we’re gonna always lose when we bet.”
Help is available across Canada for people experiencing gambling-related problems. In Quebec, Gambling: Help and Referral (Jeu: aide et référence) offers free, confidential, 24/7 support at 514-527-0140 in Montreal or 1-800-461-0140 elsewhere in Quebec, as well as online support.
