What Happened

Estimating problem gambling prevalence is methodologically complex. Canadian national and provincial surveys have employed various instruments — including the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI) — to assess rates of harmful gambling behaviour in the general population.

Why It Matters

Prevalence data informs public health resource allocation, regulatory policy, and the effectiveness assessments of responsible gambling programs. Understanding what the data does and does not show is important for responsible use of these statistics in policy and journalism.

Reported figures from public health literature: Studies published over the past decade using PGSI-based measures have generally reported moderate-to-severe problem gambling affecting somewhere between 1-3% of Canadian adults who gamble, depending on the jurisdiction, the survey year, and the population sampled. Some surveys report rates for the adult gambling population; others report on the total adult population. These distinctions matter significantly for interpreting percentages.

Ontario-specific data: The Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO) and Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre (OPGRC) have conducted repeated surveys in Ontario. Their published findings provide the most longitudinal picture of any Canadian province.

Limitations: Self-report surveys have known limitations including social desirability bias, recall error, and sampling challenges. The relationship between self-reported problem gambling scores and actual harm (financial, social, health) is imperfect. Additionally, prevalence measured before and after the Ontario iGaming market launch (April 2022) would need to account for many other factors to attribute any change to the regulatory shift.

Under-examined populations: Youth gambling, problem gambling among specific immigrant communities, and intersection with concurrent mental health conditions remain research areas where the Canadian evidence base is comparatively thin.

What’s Next

The 2025 wave of provincial gambling surveys, expected to include data points post-Ontario market launch, will be a significant contribution to the evidence base. Researchers and policy analysts have called for standardized reporting across provinces to enable more reliable comparisons.

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