Article Ontario government hid study on rates of problem gambling, internal documents reveal
https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/ontario-government-hid-study-on-rates-of-problem-gambling-internal-documents-reveal/article_3006b494-519a-487a-bdd2-25740ad7b9e6.html146
u/DocHolidayPhD 1d ago
Doug Ford needs to go! That corrupt piece of shit doesn't have the people's interest in mind at all!
44
u/Purplebuzz 1d ago
Maybe with the Russian Bot farms down his base will stop blaming Trudeau and Carney for everything wrong in Ontario.
14
4
u/Organic_Hamster_2961 1d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Proud
It's homegrown stuff like Ontario Proud keeping Ford elected. The Conservatives loosened the rules to allow this.
" In the lead up to the election, Ballingall boasted that “Ontario Proud's Facebook content was viewed almost 67 million times — more interactions than the Facebook pages of the three main parties, their leaders, the unions and all other political advocacy groups combined.”[15] Ontario Proud has been criticized for blocking users who comment on their Facebook page in support of NDP or Liberal candidates. Ontario Proud has also frequently threatened legal action against critics"
22
u/taquitosmixtape 1d ago
3 more years unless we all get angry enough it becomes obvious he has to go
14
u/GoldLurker 1d ago
Nah he'll up the vote bribe to $400 this time.
2
11
u/robotmonkey2099 1d ago
He apparently knows how to keep mindless folks preoccupied with gambling
9
u/hardy_83 1d ago
And the media loves it. They love a politician yelling about bike lanes over telling people that their policy choices are literally killing people and creating more homelessness.
6
u/robotmonkey2099 1d ago
Everyone wants to take the easy route. Why pay for investigative journalism that can take months to years when you can point a camera at some protestors
1
u/danby999 1d ago
There's a documentary about the gambling apps paying off provincial and state politicians to push through the legislation allowing them to operate.
It's why some provinces and states lagged behind and others jumped immediately.
Of course the Ford government was already set up to take large payoffs.
Just search YouTube for it.
105
83
u/cryptotope 1d ago
Hey, remember when the big tobacco companies got together in the 1950s and conspired - for decades - to distort and conceal the scientific record about the addictiveness of nicotine and the health effects of smoking?
Yeah, that's what this is, but for gambling.
Except that the Doug Ford government is doing the work for the gambling industry. No need for online gaming companies to lie to us; Doug Ford will do it for them.
11
u/Shiro_Yuy 1d ago
Diplomatic Immunity!
He’s basically the villain from Lethal Weapon 2. When corporations did this they could face repercussions but since it’s the government that we cannot take to court by its own legislation all of this just gets to happen.
DoFo-Matic Immunity! Is more like it.
2
u/ImageHour1934 1d ago
Wonder how much he's getting paid for it all.
1
u/Shiro_Yuy 1d ago
The power was his payment.
Sure he’ll get a taste but at the end of the day he’s someone else’s bitch. Just a like a CEO he has his investors that he needs to satisfy and his longevity is tied directly to his service of them.
He gets power but he never gets to be the boss so he takes that insecurity and weakness out on the little guy.
61
u/crustlebus 1d ago
Ontario:
Yours to Discover
A Place To Grow
Sponsored by DraftKings
19
u/crustlebus 1d ago
By the way, does anyone else feel disgusted and ashamed listening to a bluejays radio broadcast and being barraged with ads that end in
Ontario Only please gamble responsibly
Cos it sure feels bad to me, guys
2
u/Woods-of-Mal 1d ago
Maybe its circumstantial, but I feel like a lot of gambling ads lately don't even bother to tag in the "Please play responsibility." anymore. It's just nothing but "Gambling is amazing, it's fun all the time, you never feel better than when you're gambling. Anything that's good can only be enhanced by the addition of gambling so start gambling right now."
39
u/Purplebuzz 1d ago
So we use taxpayer money to study something. We realize that there is a problem with that thing and its harming people and we don't want to say anyhting because it will make our policies look bad and we will have to do something like restrict gambling advertising. Can some Ford supporters tell us why they think this is good for the province? I know you are usually comfortable covering your ears and yelling FAKE NEWS, but when you have to do that about every issue, surely you can take a moment and reflect.
34
u/M-Dan18127 1d ago
See also:
- bike lanes
- science centre
- education funding
- healthcare funding
- safe consumption sites
- autism waitlist
- license plates
- greenbelt development
- highway 413
- wind farms
- etc
- etc
- etc....
7
u/The-Kirklander 1d ago
Don’t forget he changed FOI laws after the court decided using his own personal phone is public records. He was too dumb and lazy to just use his work phone too
14
u/ImageHour1934 1d ago
No they can't. Conservatives vote conservative because they're too uneducated to realize they're sabotaging themselves. I live in a rural area and all these people bitch and moan about everything and yet it's still fucking Trudeau's fault. They hate Carney even though he's pretty damn conservative. They don't think for themselves at all. They just do what everyone else does.
3
23
u/MulberryConfident870 1d ago
The harm they have caused on the people of Ontario! Disgraceful
5
u/snakeLipssynk 1d ago
Basically every Conservative and Neoliberal administration since Reagan kicked off the war on the middle class.
20
u/Ani_Mentor 1d ago
I am literally bombarded by gambling ads, I can’t imagine what kind of state I would be in if this happened to be my vice. The bureaucratic state is literally in the business of destroying its citizens.
14
u/ShockMe88 1d ago
All while Dougy and his PC's sold off everything to private corps and greatly increased access to online gambling platforms, just as they made access to booze more readily available.
No one needed either, they both contribute to addiction and cause more problems.
12
u/ilovetrouble66 1d ago
Gambling should be treated like alcohol and cigarettes. Addictive and bad for your health
12
8
u/Spezza 1d ago
Ontario's CONSERVATIVE government. Why are conservatives increasing availability of alcohol? Why are conservatives promoting and encouraging gambling so much?
(Ask yourself why the news media NEVER asks the questions above, but has no problem reporting about our current liberal Prime Minister being too conservative..)
2
u/Due_Date_4667 1d ago
Because the party name is just a branding exercise, it has nothing to do with the political philosophy that may share the same terminology.
7
u/Shameless_Devil 1d ago
I wish it were illegal to advertise gambling/betting apps and casino games. The ads are EVERYWHERE and they are definitely causing a rise in gambling addiction, especially among males. My MPP agrees but the cons try to quickly quash any motions to enact legislation o this issue. It's awful.
5
u/RevolvingCheeta Ottawa 1d ago
The government that does shady business did shady business?!
I’m shocked!
/s
4
u/PopeKevin45 1d ago
Enshittification of society is every libertarian conservative party's goal. You can't have 'small gov' (aka ruler/noble/serf) without destroying democratically elected government. Hence the Doug Ford Conservatives focus on policies that increase poverty, crime (yes, crime) and a sense of hopelessness. Why? Because conservatism is a fear economy, and the more fear and uncertainty they can generate, the better their odds at the voting booth. While it's true conservatives don't give a shit about you, understand that this is a strategy, not just their usual indifference.
3
3
u/FFFUUUUUCKKKYOU 1d ago
Why would DoFo show it? He is getting a kick back from it. More money for him.
3
u/ghanima 1d ago
Online gambling has been incredibly lucrative for the province. Ontarians wagered more than $82.7 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year with nearly $3 billion of that added to provincial coffers, according to the agency’s most recent annual report.
Preliminary data for the 2025-26 fiscal year and the first quarter of 2026-27 show more than a 25-per-cent increase on those totals.
That windfall has come at a cost, critics say. Suicides by people with gambling issues have increased, according to data from Ontario’s chief coroner. Emergency department visits for gambling disorders have doubled. Insolvencies in which gambling is identified as one of the causes have more than tripled. Calls to Ontario’s problem gambling help line have also shot up.
Literally killing their own customers.
3
u/Zirocket 1d ago
This bike-lane-removal-heathcare-worker-layoff-greenbelt-destruction-mafia-contractor-bribe-money-airport-jet-expansion-Ontario-Place-destruction-ODSP-cut-Ontario-Science-Centre-demolition is brought to you buy: FanDuelCasinoBet365. Please bet irresponsibly!
2
2
u/Realistic_Low8324 1d ago
one of my wife's friends racked up a 70k debt with online gambling and that would finish me financially
2
u/RaketRoodborstjeKap 1d ago
An under-discussed aspect of this is how bad the online gambling situation is with teenagers (especially boys).
They're absolutely bombarded with ads for sports betting, online casinos, pokemon cards, etc. So many of their brains are just cooked at this point.
2
2
u/macnbloo 1d ago
This must be why the amount of gambling ads has been increasing over the years during hockey
1
1
1
u/surebudd 1d ago
All conservatives are fascists who sold their country out to the highest bidder. There are no exceptions.
1
1
u/Signal_Tomorrow_2138 1d ago
I've lost count now. How many other reports and studies did the Ford government hide or ignored? And they are For the People?
1
u/lobeline 16h ago
Every other illicit thing there are super strict rules around advertising since they are harmful and/or addictive (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, etc). One of the explicit rules is you cannot sensationalize or show it’s exciting.
… these apps… no such rule.
1
u/PostalBowl 15h ago
The Ontario government is looking a lot like the Etobicoke Mafia all grown up. The cops are complicit and the outlook is bleak.
1
u/Silent-Movie-1047 11h ago
Ontario government is a funny bunch: monopolized gambling, alcohol sales, weed sales for the first few years post-legalization… Straight up gangster! One would think we’d be swimming in money by now, not running deficits.
“If anything is highly profitable only we should be allowed to do it.” Still broke AF.
1
u/noonedeservespower 1d ago
The study seems to have just been an online survey. You would think that if the researchers wanted to publish the data they could just do it again.
399
u/wand_er 1d ago
It’s a classic bread and circus . Doug Ford is all in on gambling, alcohol , cutting down public education and healthcare , increasing private healthcare, removing bike lanes. There’s a trend - keep public engaged in petty stuff snd make profits off the people for his buddies so his corruption can continue.