Winnie Czulinski –
For almost as long as Adam Pettle has been a successful Toronto playwright, radio producer and TV writer, he has known the urge.
“Locked in the grips of active addiction for nearly four decades, I numbed my pain like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, feeling like I had the backing of the culture around me,” the recovered gambler said in a 2022 Maclean’s Magazine article. Proliferation of online casino ads didn’t help.
Pettle, who has had productions at the downtown-east Soulpepper Theatre, the Winter Garden Theatre and Canadian Stage Company, ultimately had to sell his family home to pay gambling-related debts.
After single-event sports betting was legalized in Canada in 2021, Ontario became the first province to legalize online gambling, in 2022. A Deloitte Canada analysis says that within five years of legalization, legal sports betting could grow from $500 million to nearly $28 billion. According to CasinoCanada.com, national online-gambling revenue in 2025 will hit $6.33 billion.
Many people gamble for enjoyment, without problems. But compulsive gambling can consume a life, destroy finances, involve stealing and loan sharks, and even lead to suicide. Mental Health Research Canada says that seven percent of Canadians are at high risk of problem gambling, double that among those aged 18 to 34.
Tibor Barsony was a compulsive gambler who served time for embezzlement, then founded the Canadian Foundation on Compulsive Gambling in 1983. Now the Responsible Gambling Council, based at 411 Richmond Street East, it also advocates for responsible gambling standards. Sometimes that means going into the betting milieu.
The council recently partnered with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto Raptors basketballers. The purpose is to increase awareness of gambling myths – especially in the realm of single-event sports betting.
Its partnership with MLSE “is a significant step forward in our united goals of promoting responsible gambling,” said Elaine McDougall, the council’s vice president for marketing and communications, in a media release. “By leveraging MLSE’s platforms and brand, we can engage a larger audience and reach those who may be affected by gambling harms or who may know someone who is.”
The Responsible Gambling Council also staffs “PlaySmart” centres, with interactive game kiosks and videos to illustrate the reality of games of chance, in land-based gambling venues. Staff also provide connections to resources for problem gambling. “Most people lose when they play the lottery, play a casino game, or place a bet,” its website says.
According to a news release, the council also has partnered with the U.S.-based National Football League to create a comprehensive responsible-gambling training program for university/college student athletes – a group vulnerable to risky gambling. The pilot phase at eight universities and colleges across Canada begins this spring and will be rolled out to 30 post-secondary schools in the 2025-2026 school year.
The council’s website has interactive programs and links to problem-gambling resources and treatment programs, including self-exclusion.
Today, compulsive gambling is generally recognized as an illness. That defence was still new when used in an astonishing Toronto case four decades ago.
In 1983, Brian Molony, a downtown assistant bank manager, was jailed after embezzling more than $10 million – $31 million today – utilizing 93 transactions and fraudulent loans to support his gambling compulsion. (It was uncovered through an unrelated police wiretap.) The mild-mannered employee and his crime, the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history, are detailed in the book Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony by Gary Ross, and inspired the 2003 film Owning Mawhony, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.
In Brian Molony’s time, the banking system and our world still relied on lots of paper. Today’s virtual reality is vastly different, but the fact remains that some gamblers cannot play responsibly. In Maclean’s, Adam Pettle says, “I’m scared. Sad. Enraged. Triggered.
“What can’t I change? That online gambling is here to stay, and that there’s a swarm of betting websites directly targeting the next generation of potential addicts being hard-wired for a lifetime of gambling. I’ve been around long enough to know that the house always wins.
“What can I change? My actions.”
- Responsible Gambling Council (many resources for public and industry) https://www.responsiblegambling.org/
- Gamblers Anonymous https://gamblersanonymous.org/ and Gam-Anon (for families/loved ones) https://gam-anon.org/ 12-step programs
- Book – Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony by Gary Ross https://www.amazon.ca/Stung-incredible-obsession-Brian-Molony/dp/0773721185/
