🇨🇦 The under-the-radar 'epidemic' of underage gambling

Ontario legalized the apps, flooded sports culture with betting, then acted shocked that teenagers got in anyway. What a miracle. Parents in Toronto are reportedly using their own ID to open accounts for 16-year-olds, while officials cling to the fairy tale that upload-your-photo safeguards were going to stop a market that took in over $100 billion in the last year. Even private schools are bringing in counsellors while kids keep gambling during the assembly, as reported.

This is the Trudeau-era governing template in miniature: deregulate vice, drown the public in slick marketing, call it regulated, then dump the social fallout onto families. Ontario banned some celebrity gambling ads, but still allows the same industry to dress up promos as responsible gaming. Very responsible indeed. No charges from police, of course, just education and harm reduction while minors lose thousands and addiction gets normalized as a group activity. The state wanted the revenue, the companies wanted the volume, and kids got turned into a growth market. That is not public policy. That is managed decay with an app interface.

🍁 Maple Chronicles