'Bigger issue than doping': Canada flirting with disaster amid growth of legalized sports gambling

Jeremy Luke says then when it comes to gambling, Canada is flirting with disaster.

Luke, the president and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), says that as Canada embraces legalized gambling, a betting "scandal" involving match fixing or athletes betting on sports in which they participate in is inevitable.

"I think this is a major issue facing sport. I'd suggest it's as big, perhaps even bigger of an issue than doping is as far as the integrity of sport is concerned," Luke told CBC Sports. "The potential for manipulation and corruption, it's a huge risk that faces sport in Canada.

"Many other countries are very, very far ahead as far as trying to deal with it and protect athletes. As we think about sport integrity issues and safety issues in Canada, this has to be top of mind."

Since single-game betting became legal in Canada, the industry has exploded. If you follow sport in Canada, even casually, the ubiquitous presence of gambling is inescapable. From the deluge of advertising on television, radio and online to ads on the fields of play and players' jerseys, it can't be avoided. Leagues that once eschewed gambling now embrace it, forming partnerships and reaping millions in advertising revenue.

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In Canada, Ontario has been the only province to formally regulate dozens of operators who for years operated in a so-called grey zone. In doing this, the province has been able to quantify just how much money Ontarians are betting on sports. In the last year alone, that number exceeded more than $35 billion dollars.

It's against this backdrop that the CCES is behind an urgent push to help Canadian sport protect the integrity of itsgames and educate athletes about gambling.

"Given that Canada has moved to legalize single-event sport betting and enabled provinces to offer this type of activity to Canadians and we're seeing it through the significant amount of advertising," Luke said. "I think that just makes it that much more susceptible to issues of manipulation and corruption and that much more of a reason why we have an obligation to protect the sport and to protect the participants within the sporting system."

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One area theCCES is focusing on is the country's national sport organizations (NSO), which are responsible for identifying and training about 4,000 Canadian athletes for international competition, including the Olympics.

Jerome McEniry is a lawyer with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and is the organization's point of contact for sports betting and match manipulation.

McEniry said the organization that oversees Canada's vast Olympic operations is "concerned" about the "vulnerability" of Canadian athletes.

The CCES and the COC are involved in a pilot project with six NSOs, including basketball, curling and soccer, educating athletes on things like how to recognize match manipulation and what to do about it.

"It's a template policy, it's essentially a policy that sport organizations could take and adopt and implement," Luke said. "In an ideal world, there would be a requirement for all sport organizations to adopt and to implement all through the lens of wanting to protect our Canadian athletes."

'Woefully ill equipped'

Luke said the Canadian sport system remains "woefully ill equipped" to deal with gambling. He said the issue should be dealt with similar to doping one set of harmonized rules for all sports.

"We're still struggling to be able to implement a national policy across all of our federally funded sports that would deal with this issue in a meaningful way," he said. "It's disappointing that we haven't been able to gain the traction."

The CCES is making inroads elsewhere. As part of a partnership with Canadian Football League, it has helped roll out a mandatory gambling education program to its players and personnel.

Eric Noivo is the CFL's associate vice-president of health and safety. He was also responsible for developing and updating the league's match manipulation policy and procedures. Noivo said that in the last two weeks, more than 1,000 people involved with the league, including 500 players have taken the education program, which outlines what is and isn't allowed when it comes to gambling.

"There's definitely a heightened concern just based on the availability of gambling products in today's day and age," Noivo said. "It's no secret around the evolution of gambling and the prevalence of advertising related to gambling. So really we want to protect not just our players but the entire CFL."

CFLers more susceptible to influence?

Noivo acknowledged that CFL players are compensated at a much lower level than athletes in some other leagues including the NFL, possibly creating opportunity for gamblers to influence players.

Noivo said the league carefully monitors its games for possible manipulation both internally and with help of an external company. No issues were detected throughout the entire 2022 season or through week one of this year's season.

CFL players are prohibited from gambling on CFL games but are permitted to wager on other sports. Noivo said the league is aware the dangers this may pose if a player were to try to make up losses incurred elsewhere by manipulating a game they were involved in.

"All leagues have a challenge with regards to what's prohibited and what's not, specifically with the rights of the individual," he said. "If we were to say you can't play any fantasy sports or gamble on anything, it's a very slippery slope.

"We are working with our partners at the CFLPA to develop further education, resources to identify individuals who may have a problem with gambling and to assist them."