No Canadian Coroner Has Held an Inquest Into Gambling-Related Suicides Despite 220 Deaths in a Decade
A CBC News investigation found that at least 220 problem gamblers in Canada have died by suicide over the past decade, yet no Canadian coroner has ever held an inquest into these deaths. Meanwhile, gambling-related suicides in Ontario have tripled since 2022, and several provinces and territories do not track such deaths at all.
At least 220 problem gamblers in Canada have died by suicide over the last decade, according to a CBC News investigation. Despite the scale of these losses, no coroner in Canada has ever held an inquest into gambling-related suicides.
The lack of formal inquiries stands in contrast to practices in other countries. In Australia, Coroner Paul Lowrie investigated the suicide of 22-year-old Kyle Hudson, who lost $47,000 Cdn over four years on SportsBet. Hudson placed 10,000 bets during that period and lost $6,200 on the morning he died. The inquest revealed that SportsBet triggered 37 alerts on its internal "Safer Gambling" monitoring system for Hudson but continued to send him bonus offers and inducements. During the proceedings, SportsBet maintained that Hudson did not have a gambling problem, contradicting evidence from his family, experts, and analysis of his betting activity.
In the United Kingdom, seven gambling-related inquests have been held since 2022. That year followed an inquiry into the death of Jack Ritchie, a 24-year-old from Sheffield, England, who died by suicide in November 2017 after becoming hooked on online gambling following a fluke win of 1,000 pounds ($1,870 Cdn).
Experts and advocates argue that Canadian coroners do not routinely investigate financial records or online history for gambling links, leading to a lack of data and accountability. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Yukon, and Nunavut do not track gambling-related deaths due to a lack of obvious indicators in most death investigations. Chief coroners in Canada pledged in 2003 to begin tracking gambling problems nationally, but this has never happened.
Gambling-related suicides in Ontario have tripled since 2022. Ontario operates a $3-billion-a-year online gambling market. The province’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming stated it has invested $421 million since 2018 in responsible gambling education, research, and addiction treatment, including $70.1 million over the last year.
Problem gamblers face the loss of money, trust, relationships, and family stability, alongside suicide attempts and completed suicides. Advocates are calling for major industry reforms and stricter monitoring and intervention by betting companies amid public health concerns regarding an epidemic of addiction linked to legal online betting markets.