All over Ontario, casinos are associated with concentrations of self-identified problem gamblers.
In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), data reveals a stark concentration of people who live near casinos have signed up for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) self-exclusion program.
The program, called My PlayBreak, allows someone to bar themselves from entering a casino for a select time period of up to five years. The PlayBreak program also applies to OLG-based online gambling.
My PlayBreak uses facial recognition to monitor casino entry, and self-excluded individuals who try to get in anyway risk being charged with trespassing.
Under freedom of information laws, Village Media obtained the partial postal codes of tens of thousands of people who have registered for self-exclusion.
In total, about 22,600 Ontario residents are registered in the exclusionary program, not including those who live in other provinces, or in the United States.
In the immediate neighbourhoods around many of Ontario’s casinos, the rate of self-identified problem gamblers is much higher than the provincial average of 16 people per 10,000.
The data on OLG’s self-exclusion program
Within the GTA, there are three major casinos, all of which maintain lists of self-identified problem gamblers.
At the Casino at Great Canadian Toronto (formerly called Woodbine Casino), data shows a large concentration of self-identified problem gamblers live in the immediate neighbourhood around the venue.
Among the local population of about 245,000 people in the seven postal codes close to the casino, which is located in north Etobicoke, a total of 674 people have registered for My PlayBreak.
That’s about 380 more people on the self-exclusion list, or roughly double the amount, than would be the case if local rates were around the provincial average.
The Casino at Great Canadian Toronto (formerly Woodbine Casino) is the red dot on the map; the darker the shade of blue in a postal code area, the higher the rate of self-identified problem gamblers.
In Durham Region, there are casinos in both Pickering and Ajax. Data shows high rates of self-excluded gamblers in both immediate communities.
In Casino Ajax’s postal area, there are 84 residents enroled in the My PlayBreak program in a population of 28,446.
At the nearby Pickering Casino Resort, the number of registrants in a bordering postal area is 62 within the area’s population of 19,481.
In the case of both Ajax and Pickering’s casinos, that works out to about twice the provincial average.
Rates of self-exclusion are also above the provincial average in nearby Whitby and Oshawa.
The Pickering and Ajax casinos are the red dots on the map; the darker the shade of blue in a postal code area, the higher the rate of self-identified problem gamblers.
Beyond the GTA, the pattern is also evident around casinos in Sarnia, Windsor, London, Woodstock, Brantford, Peterborough, Orillia, Gloucester, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.
Renze Nauta of Cardus, a think tank that studies gambling, said the data points to 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," she said.
Ontario’s highest rate of self-excluded gamblers is in the same Windsor postal area as the Windsor casino.
Some 276 residents are registered in the exclusionary program at Caesars Windsor, or about one per cent of the total population of that postal area.
The second highest rate of self-identified problem gamblers is found in downtown Thunder Bay, near the Gateway Casino Thunder Bay.
The Sault Ste. Marie postal code P6C, near the city’s casino, also has more than 500 My PlayBreak registrants, higher than the provincial average.
This disproportional rate of problem gambling among residents near casinos is not just a Canadian issue.
Areas near the Canada-U.S. border are also atypical.
Over 1,000 people with U.S. addresses are registered in the OLG’s self-exclusion program.
Based on partial zip codes released by OLG, many of these registrants are concentrated in the Detroit area, opposite the Windsor casino, in Port Huron, Mich., opposite the Sarnia casino and in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, opposite Casino Niagara.
The impact of problem gambling
"Anything that has greater availability results in greater access," said Robert Williams, a problem gambling expert at the University of Lethbridge. “There's a lot of literature on this general relationship between gambling availability and gambling harm.”
Statistics Canada estimates that about 300,000 Canadians are at moderate-to-severe risk of problem gambling.
The societal harm of problem gambling has been estimated as being similar in magnitude to harms attributed to major depressive disorder, or alcohol misuse and dependence.
Even in a financial sense, Nauta said problem gambling “can lead to challenges to family life [and] divorce."
Williams said “there's a significant genetic disposition” for problem gambling — and such addictions can run in families.
"Electronic gambling machines, like slot machines and video lottery terminals, are more addictive than lottery tickets and raffles and bingo,” he said. ”The main thing that determines the addictiveness of a product is frequency of administration."
Ontario earns about $2.3 billion annually from gambling revenue. A 2013 study found about 30 per cent of Ontario's gambling revenues came from problem gamblers.
Williams cited other studies that show people in the self-exclusion system are commonly able to breach it and gamble anyway.
He advocates for Ontario to implement British Columbia's system, in which everybody entering a casino has their ID scanned and cross-referenced to the self-exclusion list.
Communities lose more than they gain from allowing casinos to operate, Williams argues.
"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,” Williams said of Ontario’s casino business. “The fee the local municipality gets from the casino does not match the money that is lost."
In 2023, Toronto saw over $26 million from a share of gambling revenue from the Woodbine casino alone.
Many pro-gambling advocates would argue this revenue is good for the local community and can lead to other employment opportunities through the casino.
But does job creation in the community offset the money lost through gambling? Williams says no.
Williams said most casino employment is “cannibalized from other local service sector industries,” like cleaning and food services.
In the end, Nauta said the gamblers themselves are not the only ones addicted.
"The government itself has a bit of a gambling addiction problem," he alleged. "There's a perverse incentive here for governments, because the more gambling that takes place, the more tax revenue they can get in."
Village Media reached out to the OLG but the corporation did not respond to an interview request.
If you suffer from a gambling addiction, resources are available. The Canadian Mental Health Association lists several strategies for gambling responsibly, including setting a budget and time limit on gambling in advance.
