ED Visits for Gambling Disorder Spike After Canada Liberalizes Online Gambling

THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Emergency department visits for gambling disorders nearly doubled after Canada expanded online gambling markets, according to a study published online Sept. 16 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.Ryan Forrest, from the University of Toronto, and colleagues estimated changes in the rates of emergency department visits for gambling disorders after online gambling liberalization in April 2022. The analysis included data from 17.3 million people (2012 to 2025).The researchers found that over 14 years, there were 952 emergency department visits for gambling disorders from 757 unique individuals (mean age, 41.8 years; 72.0 percent male). Compared with before liberalization, the mean quarterly rates of emergency department visits for gambling disorders were 31.3 percent higher during the period after liberalization (1.28 to 1.68 per 1,000,000 individuals). Increases were only seen in males (1.81 to 2.63 per 1,000,000), not females (0.77 to 0.74 per 1,000,000). Before liberalization, visits were stable and showed no immediate change on implementation, but began to increase by 7 percent per quarter. By April to June 2025, the rate of emergency department visits for gambling disorders was estimated to be 99.0 percent higher overall than the expected rates without gambling market liberalization, with even higher incidence rates seen for males aged 10 to 29 years and 30 to 44 years (154.0 and 116.0 percent, respectively)."Most people experiencing gambling problems will never seek care, so the concern is that the increases in emergency department visits for gambling disorders we observed may be revealing much larger increases in gambling-related harm," senior author Daniel Myran, M.D., also from the University of Toronto, said in a statement. "Data from Ontario provide an important caution about the potential harms that can accompany rapid expansion of online gambling."Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

ED Visits for Gambling Disorder Spike After Canada Liberalizes Online Gambling

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