Photo Credit: Vadim Rodnev / Shutterstock
Ontario is enhancing gambling harm prevention efforts across colleges and universities. The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC), with support from iGaming Ontario, will expand its post-secondary program from 20 to 40 campuses during the 2026-27 academic year.
The campaign is targeting 10,000 in-person student interactions. At least 10,000 Student Education Kits will also be distributed throughout the year through areas such as campus health services, residence life, and student services.
RGC says young adults between 18 and 24 are among the groups at highest risk of gambling harm. About 70% of young people in Ontario attend college or university, giving the organization a way to reach that age group directly on campus.
Sarah McCarthy, CEO of RGC, said young adults are growing up in an environment where betting has become closely connected to how they watch and discuss sports. She added that reaching students on campus can help them better understand gambling risks.
This year’s campus program is called The Random Tower. The campaign uses a life-sized Jenga-style activity designed to demonstrate how gambling outcomes are influenced by factors outside a person’s control. Messages inside the blocks highlight the role of randomness in sports betting and other forms of gambling.
RGC-trained ambassadors will use the activity to speak with students about harm prevention and available resources.
The organization has been running its post-secondary campus tour for 25 years, but these expanded efforts aim to address the growing issue of problem gambling within the province.
BetGuard will also be promoted as part of the expanded program. This is Ontario’s centralized self-exclusion tool for regulated online gambling. It allows a person to opt out of all regulated online gambling sites in the province rather than going through the process separately with individual operators.
Student Education Kits will contain information about BetGuard along with a scannable code that directs students to more information, along with the option to self-exclude.
The campus expansion is also important because not every post-secondary student is old enough to legally gamble online in Ontario. Players must be at least 19 to participate in regulated online gaming, meaning some students entering college or university remain below the legal gambling age.
Ontario has already faced underage gambling concerns involving minors gaining access to online betting accounts. Some reported cases involved parents knowingly allowing teenagers to use their identification or betting accounts. This highlights how age-verification measures can be undermined even when an operator initially verifies an account held by an adult.
That makes education important alongside stronger age-verification controls. Campus prevention programs can help students understand the risks before or shortly after they reach the legal gambling age.
Addressing those risks early is especially important when sports betting has become increasingly visible to young people through sports broadcasts, social media, and much more.
The expansion also comes as gambling-related harm among younger Ontario residents receives more attention. A recent study found that gambling-related emergency room visits nearly doubled following the legalization of single-event sports betting and the expansion of Ontario’s online gambling market.
Researchers reviewed 952 gambling-related emergency department visits involving 757 people over a 14-year period. The increase was particularly notable among younger men, adding more context to the RGC’s decision to target prevention efforts toward college and university students.
By expanding prevention efforts, RGC and iGaming Ontario are aiming to put more resources toward addressing this issue.
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