People with gambling addictions in Quebec make little use of rehabilitation services

McGill University and the Douglas Research Center found that participants attended an average of fewer than two treatment sessions during the trial.

Even though they are free, rehabilitation services are rarely used by people with gambling addiction in Quebec.

A study conducted by McGill University and the Douglas Research Center found that participants attended an average of fewer than two treatment sessions during the study period, from 2009 to 2022.

The study, published in the Journal of Gambling Studies, examined, among other things, types of gambling and overall service utilization as factors associated with the frequency of admissions for gambling disorder treatment at specialized addiction treatment centers over a 13-year period.

The data were drawn from medical records at 14 of the 16 rehabilitation centres in Quebec. They were linked to the province’s administrative health and social services databases.

Marie-Josée Fleury, lead author of the study and professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, emphasizes that this is not a population-based sample but a clinical sample.

“When people seek care at specialized services, they are people with significant problems. So my cohort—the 2,300 people we’re looking at—consists of individuals who are materially and socially disadvantaged, most of whom have co-occurring disorders, such as mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and chronic physical illnesses. This is a highly vulnerable cohort, unlike those in population-based studies,” explains the researcher.

Among those who sought services, approximately 42 per cent were admitted more than once.

“When we look at the scientific literature, it indicates that about 10 per cent of the population with a gambling-related disorder seeks help from specialized gambling treatment services,” Fleury said. ”However, when we start to analyze the data in a bit more depth, that figure can rise to as high as 50 per cent among chronic gamblers—those who have been gambling for a long time or who have multiple health and social problems.

“Generally speaking, gamblers used rehabilitation centres fewer than twice over a 13-year period, which is still very few times.”

• READ MORE: Online gambling tripled in Quebec in past decade and is not likely to slow down: study

Growth of online gambling

To diagnose a gambling addiction, experts look at how often the person gambles, the types of games they play, and, above all, whether it has a significant impact on their life.

“If I gamble and it doesn’t change anything in my life—I’m still in a relationship and things are going well, I’m still working, I’m able to manage my budget and pay my bills—then there’s no problem. But, if my gambling problem leads me to spend all my money, I’ve lost my home, I can no longer afford food, I’m divorced, I’ve lost my job…,” said Fleury.

Easy access to online betting, particularly sports betting—whether through apps or websites—creates additional distress for people with gambling addiction. The study shows, however, that the use of support services was about 15 per cent higher among online gamblers.

Data on types of gambling indicate that about one in 10 people identify as online gamblers, but this figure is underestimated, according to Fleury. \

“The literature tells us that people who are online gamblers face even more serious problems,” she said. “Furthermore, they may develop more severe chronic addiction more quickly. When you gamble at home—let’s say you’re gambling online at home—you can play for as many hours as you want. There are no restrictions, and you can also gamble more discreetly.”

Her first recommendation is to increase screening efforts.

First, in the emergency department, there are addiction teams because many patients with alcohol- or drug-related disorders come to the ER and may also have a gambling addiction.

“So we try to screen them, motivate them to seek treatment, and then refer them to outpatient care, because the ER shouldn’t replace outpatient care,” the researcher notes.

She would also like to see greater involvement from liaison nurses who work in the ER as well as on the wards. The same goes for family physicians, who, according to a systematic review on the role of family physicians in addressing pathological gambling, do not screen for these issues often enough and do not refer patients to the appropriate services frequently enough.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 8, 2026.

The Canadian Press’s health coverage is supported by a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for this journalistic content.