Opinion: Steady stream of Manitobans seeking debt help when online sports betting goes too far

Opinion

Problem gambling can often go unnoticed, especially when wagering from the comfort of home. Yet, it does not go undetected.

Financial institutions are likely to pick up on transaction activity — and it’s not like it used to be, where cash withdrawals may or may not indicate a proclivity for gambling.

Rather, with the rise of sports betting and legalized online betting in general, financial institutions are seeing more direct evidence, including credit card and debit transactions directly to the province’s PlayNow Manitoba site or other online gambling websites like Bet365.

“We see over one million applicants (for loans) every year, and we see that a lot of them are quite heavily into online gambling and a lot of it ties into sports betting,” says Tyler Thielmann, president and chief executive officer of Spring Financial, an online lending marketplace based in Vancouver.

“What we see now on people’s bank statements on a Friday night, there’d be 40 Bet365 transactions, and we’d be like: this person has an issue.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean people are being denied loans, if it still appears they have the ability to pay it back.

“Our perspective is it’s a free world and it doesn’t matter how you want to spend more for your entertainment, whether it’s $100 on online sports betting or going to the movies,” he says. “We don’t care.”

Yet, regular gambling can increase the interest rate on a loan or reduce the sum that’s lent. Some applicants are denied financing entirely, Thielmann adds. “Four or five years ago, we wouldn’t see this, but today, it’s extremely frequent.”

Just how many Canadians are gambling on sports?

A TGM Sports Betting Survey from 2022 estimated 20 per cent of Canada’s population was involved in sports betting in the 12 months prior. More broadly, Statistics Canada data from 2018 suggested nearly 19 million Canadians gambled, or 60 per cent of the population, and an estimated 1.6 per cent were at-risk of developing a problem or already had one.

Weighing the financial impact is challenging, but one 2013 study by an Ontario think tank estimated problem gamblers cost more than $50,000 annually in lost work, treatment and even legal costs.

Of course, the other side of the coin for gambling in Canada is it is legalized, particularly now with features allowing in-game, multiple bets on a variety of aspects of an event.

This sin tax raises a lot of money for provinces.

In Manitoba, in 2023, online gambling generated about $75 million in revenue, and more than $53 million in profit for the provincial coffers, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp. notes in its 2022-23 annual report.

By comparison, alcohol sales took in about $884 million in revenue, generating about $319 million in profit. Provincial casinos had revenues of about $229 million and about $91 million in profit.

While online gambling is a small fraction of the roughly $740 million generated by MLL for education, roads and health care, it’s one of the most profitable income streams due to its lower operation cost.

That means Canadians can continue to expect a steady stream of marketing for it, especially when watching sports on TV.

Of course, legalizing gambling is a form of harm reduction. Governments had to do something because online gambling knows no borders. Before it was allowed, Canadians were gambling online with their money going outside of Canada.

If folks are going to do it, the government might as well regulate it and earn money to spend on cash-strapped services.

Some of the revenue does go to harm reduction initiatives — about $12 million annually, with about $9 million for community partners such as Community Financial Counselling Services (CFCS).

The money the province provides has allowed the non-profit debt counselling service to hire an additional debt counsellor specializing in helping problem gamblers.

“It’s steady,” Gopinath Kundukattil, a counsellor at CFCS in Winnipeg, says about demand.

Yet, he also says the organization is likely not reaching everyone who it could assist. “Those people who are problem gambling often do not come to us, but they should know that we are here to help.”

Often, the realization of gambling being problematic is more incidental when working with clients. Only by going through their spending does it come out as a partial or significant cause of indebtedness.

Recognizing the problem is probably larger than it seems, CFCS has done outreach in the community, particularly in rural areas where Kundukattil has seen more people experiencing financial difficulties from gambling.