Today’s episode of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, comes from the Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto.

Ted Orme-Claye, editor of Insider Sport and Payment Expert, is joined by Jessica Welman, Editor of SBC Americas, and special guest Martin Lycka, SVP American Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Gambling at Entain, to talk through their first day at the event.

To start the show the trio recap Martin’s interview with former ice hockey player Luke Gazdic for the Safe Bet Show. 

Martin said: “Gazdic is a former NHL player, so he’s got a very relevant experience to consider what else might need to be so that we can further enhance the standards that we apply when protecting the likes of the athletes. And he also bravely told the audience about the jitters that he’s still suffering when he’s coming on any stage, especially TV screens”

Ontario’s regulated online iGaming and sports betting market opened in April 2022 and talk turns to how the province has developed its player protection efforts in this time.

Martin says that Ontario already is and will be in the future one of the “leading lights” when it comes to online gambling regulation and its open door policy has meant that he had had some “wonderful and even more importantly efficient and productive discussions” with regulators.

The discussion then moves on to a policy recently implemented by Ontario regulators that prevents operators from using active athletes and celebrities that can be considered to appeal to children in advertising. 

Martin questions the ambiguous nature of the guidelines and questions how it will be determined whether a celebrity is seen as being appealing to children.

Jess adds that it’s hard to “put the onus on the operator and broadcaster” to figure out which celebrities would be considered to be deemed appealing to children.

The trio then look at how Ontario’s advertising policy compares to other jurisdictions.

Ted says that in the UK the guidelines are similar regarding a prohibition on active athletes appearing in gambling ads whereas Jess notes in the US stars such as Lebron James are allowed to appear in ads as long as they are not advertising betting on the sport that they play.