CGA's Paul Burns on Bill S-269, Media Research, and iGO’s Next Leader

Gaming News Canada Show

There’s been a renewed flurry of media coverage lately around the legal gambling industry in the true north, strong and free, including:

· An editorial by The Globe and Mail calling on the Justin Trudeau government to pass Bill S-269 before our elected federal officials head home for the holidays:

· An interview by Matt Galloway of CBC’s The Current with a problem gambler in the aftermath of a study released by the Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling;

· A St. Albert Gazette piece on the relationship between igaming, advertising and problem gambling;

· And just yesterday, this “Is the $11 billion online sportsbook bubble about to burst?” tome from the keyboard of David Hill for Rolling Stone.

At the same time, the Canadian Gaming Association just made public research it commissioned North American advertising intelligence company MediaRadar to conduct on advertising by operators in Ontario’s regulated market. The research shows a decrease in the amount of advertising spend by operators of online sports betting and gaming products since the province’s market opened its doors in April 2022.

Paul Burns, the CGA’s president and CEO, returned to the Gaming News Canada Show to discuss the latest research, and also respond to the latest coverage by the Globe and CBC (the CGA also posted a response on LinkedIn to the Globe editorial). Burns also addressed the efforts the industry have made around responsible gambling while yet again emphasizing the operators’ multi-layered actions to keep children from accessing their products. He also spoke about the challenges in front of advocates of Bill S-269 to have a national framework for sports betting advertising to take effect.

He also spoke about the recent Royal Assent given by the Douglas Ford government to the iGaming Ontario Act, which will separate iGO from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. We also asked Burns for his thoughts on what background and skill set the iGO board of directors and its recruiting firm should be seeking in the president and CEO who will replace Martha Otton when the woman responsible for leading the charge to opening the Ontario market in the spring of 2022 retires at year’s end.

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