Sports betting on single games has passed Canada’s Senate and only needs royal assent to become legal. Once that happens, provinces and territories will be free to regulate betting on hockey, football and other sports as they see fit, and bettors will be able to wager on teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, the B.C. Lions and the Toronto Blue Jays.
It’s possible Canadians could be placing wagers on single-game contests by this fall, perhaps in time for the NFL season, which begins September 6.
By a vote of 57-20, the Senate approved MP Kevin Waugh’s Bill C-128, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act. It amends the federal criminal code, which currently allows only combination wagers, known as parlay wagers, and betting on horse racing. The bill passed in the House of Commons several months ago.
Its passage will go a long way to helping Canada rake back some of the gambling proceeds that are now being sucked up by offshore websites such as Bet365 and Bodog, black-market bookmakers, and casinos in the United States. Since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a federal ban on the wagers in 2018, 26 states have jumped on the sports betting bandwagon, with more waiting in the wings.
The author of the Senate bill, David Wells, says a legal industry will redirect that illicit revenue into provincial taxes. During the final debate on the bill, he declared, “Canadians are placing billions of dollars’ worth of bets annually through these offshore sites, that go entirely unregulated in Canada.” The Canadian Gaming puts that figure at north of $4 billion.
TheScore, which operates a betting app, estimates the market to be as high as $5.4 billion annually. And DraftKings estimates the market for sports betting and iGaming in Canada could be worth up to $8 billion a year.
Wells said in a statement: “This bill, once it becomes law, will make it possible for single-event sports betting to be regulated—and it will increase consumer protections and safeguards. Revenue streams going to illegal actors will dry up and be redirected to Canadian communities in a way that is legal and taxable.
“This is a critical moment for Canada, as single-event sports betting will finally be brought into the light of day.”
Provincial governments have called for the ability to regulate gaming for years because, they say, they could use the revenue.
The bill was rare in that it won approval from all four main political parties. Similar bills had almost reach this point: one was passed in the House of Commons in 2015 but died in the Senate when a federal election was called, suddenly putting the brakes on all legislation. Another try in 2016 didn’t even get that far.
However, more than 20 senators did vote for amendments that would have sent the bill back to the House. One of them, Senator Vern White, commented, “This piece of legislation has many tentacles that could have been and should have been looked at more closely.” White had wanted to amend the bill to make match fixing a crime. However Senator Brent Cotter argued that the existing Criminal Code that addresses “cheating at play,” already deal with that issue.
Cotter also insists that it’s the minor leagues where players earn less than the big leagues that game fixing is a problem—one that has been exacerbated by illegal betting sites.
Professional sports organizations such as the Canadian Football League (CFL) and National Hockey League support the change. The CFL trumpeted the change and predicted that legalization “will move sports wagering out of the shadows and into the light of day where it belongs.”
Some provinces aren’t waiting for the ink to dry before getting ready. British Columbia Public Safety Ministry spokesman Travis Paterson announced that the B.C. Lottery Corp. is “positioned to allow single-event wagering online almost immediately” on its website, PlayNow.com.
BCLC’s interim president and CEO Lynda Cavanaugh said in a statement: “We’re excited to soon provide our players these new offerings on PlayNow.com, which is B.C.’s only legal gambling website and delivers important revenue back to the province of B.C. to support things like health care, education and community programs.”
In Ontario, Attorney General Doug Downey promised to “land the framework by this fall,” with regulations and rules for licensing in place by the end of 2021.
Although Canadian casinos could benefit from the expansion of sports betting, British Columbia and Ontario are promising to make it available more widely than that.
Supporters of sports betting have been nervous for months as the bill wended its way through the House of Commons and then the Senate. There is considerable tension between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the opposition party that could, at any time, lead in Trudeau calling for an early election, which would have ended all legislative efforts. With that possibility always waiting in the wings, sponsors of C-218 worked feverishly to pass the bill as quickly as possible.
This was complicated by several amendments that were introduced, one to prohibit match fixing and the other to specifically include Indigenous nations as entities that could participate in sports betting. Both were batted away.
However, Senator Wells, who is a mountain climber, compared his strategy in pushing the bill to an assault on a peak. He told SportsHandle.com, “In high-altitude mountaineering the biggest thing is not the climb, it’s the preparation.
“If you go in with a solid plan, it’s not unlike doing a climb like Kilimanjaro or Elbrus. If you do your preparation, your chances of success are good even with the closing window that we had.”
