Canada may not quite be the world power of its neighbour to the south but its economy is by no means insubstantial.
With a GDP of almost $2.1 trillion a year it stands as the ninth largest in the world, positioned between Russia, another close neighbour, and Italy.
Key sectors include mining, manufacturing and service industries. In recent years technology has also started to play a more significant part, boosted by government aid for start-ups.
There’s another booming area of business that crosses over several sectors and, in doing so, gambling competes with several other entertainment sectors.
The size of the industry
In 2021 the size of the Canadian gambling industry was $12.54 billion and it is currently showing an annual growth rate of around 12%. This puts it on a par with the film and television industry in the country, however this is not currently showing anything like the same rate of growth.
So we can expect to see an increasing gulf grow between these two very different kinds of entertainment going forward.
The growth of the industry can be put down to the fact that individual provinces are gradually starting to permit more and more gaming options under their control. In addition, the growth of online casinos and other forms of betting are also having a significant effect.
So who’s playing?
Looking into the figures, it throws up some very interesting insights. For example, it’s estimated that around 19 million adults in Canada participate in some form of gambling each year.
Looking at the gender split, men are marginally more likely to gamble than women with the respective percentages being 68.8% and 60.4%.
In terms of the minimum permitted age for gambling, the general rule across the country is that all players must be at least 19. However, as provinces are allowed to set their own limits over the activity in their particular region, this is 18 in Manitoba, Quebec and Alberta.
Digging a little deeper into the demographics, it’s households with higher levels of disposable income who tend to participate the most. However, there may be a few warning signs that the increasing interest rates and the rising cost of living may soon put more of a squeeze on this group.
The games people play
In common with most countries where betting is legal, it’s lotteries that are the big money-spinners in Canada. These are run by two organisations that cover the country, the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation and the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. Not only do the lotteries offer players the chance to win life-changing sums, they also raise around $1.25 billion a year in revenue for the government.
As already mentioned, online casinos and other forms of activity including poker games are also becoming more and more popular. As a result, an increasing number of major global operators are now offering their services to the Canadian market.
But perhaps the biggest change of all in recent years has been the 2021 ruling allowing betting on single sporting events. Canadians are very keen on sports whether it’s hockey, horse racing or football so now that many provinces are starting to permit sports gambling, rapid growth is anticipated.
Employment
Gambling also contributes greatly to the Canadian economy in a number of less direct ways beyond raising taxes and contributing to the GDP. One of these is in providing direct employment to an estimated 182,500 Canadians. What’s more, these are relatively well-paid jobs in the main with an average income of around $65,000 a year.
In total this amounts to a very considerable $11.9 billion in labour income.
This figure rises even further when you also start to take into account the many ancillary industries that also serve the gambling sector.
These are exceptionally wide ranging and include businesses across numerous specialisms. Examples include printing companies such as Nanoptix Inc. of New Brunswick who produce lottery tickets and the work apparel company Unisync Corp. which supplies uniforms for many of the 8000+ employees working in brick and mortar casinos.
Casinos themselves, and there are over 100 across the country, also provide business opportunities for everyone from food and produce suppliers to the energy companies that power them.
So, as you can see, gambling in its many forms has a very important role to play across the whole Canadian company.
As we move forward, this role is set to become even more significant offering revenue-raising opportunities for the government and employment opportunities for working Canadians.
Much will be fuelled by advances in technology and we can expect to see the online casino and sportsbook sector continue to grow and make ever-greater contributions to the economy.
And it’s also the fans of gambling who will also enjoy all of the benefits that this ever-widening choice will bring them.
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