‘Finally.’ Single-event sports betting is coming to Canada after Bill C-218 clears final hurdle

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This article was published 22/06/2021 (1537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After almost 10 years and two attempts by its proponents, single-event sports betting in Canada is about to be legal.

The Senate passed Bill C-218, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, on Tuesday by a vote of 57-20. It will become law when the bill gets royal assent.

Once approved, the provinces will have the authority to license and regulate sports betting, which has seen an estimated $14 billion spent annually by Canadians through offshore (grey market) or illegal gambling (black market) operators.

“There a sense of ‘finally,’” Paul Burns, president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, said Tuesday afternoon on hearing the news that the Senate had passed Bill C-218.

“We can now get on with what we’ve wanted to do for so long.”

Until now, bettors have only been allowed to legally wager on two or more games, otherwise known as a parlay.

Proponents of legalized sports betting watched two previous efforts to amend the Criminal Code fall by the wayside — first in 2011 and again in 2015. In February 2020, however, Saskatchewan MP Kevin Waugh reintroduced the legislation as a private member’s bill which made it to the Senate more than a year later.

Some senators expressed concerns about an increase in gambling addiction and the potential for match-fixing, especially in lower-tier leagues where athletes aren’t highly paid, and hence susceptible to taking money to change the course of a sporting event to benefit bettors. Two amendments — one to include language around match-fixing, the other at the request of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake to accommodate Indigenous interests and “protect our economic future in gaming” — were defeated.

“This piece of legislation has many tentacles that could have and should have been looked at more closely,” said Sen. Vernon White, the former RCMP deputy commissioner who proposed the match-fixing amendment and voted against it Tuesday.

“I have spoken about match fixing … and we could speak to areas such as mental illness and the impact micro (or in-game) betting will have on gamblers, the tools used by online gambling infrastructure to ensure a gambler’s continued betting, ethics in sports.”

Waugh, a former sports broadcaster, said in a statement that black-market bookmakers and offshore websites “have had a monopoly on single-event betting” for too long.

“I call on provincial governments to act as quickly as possible to get the necessary regulations and licences in place so that all Canadians can begin to place their wagers,” Waugh said. “This bill is a win for Canadian taxpayers, workers and sports fans.”

Several provinces, including Ontario, have already been preparing for licensing and regulated industry that will involve its existing lottery corporations and attracting major sportsbooks such as DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet and The Score, which are operating in U.S. states where sports betting is now legal.

“We have been actively preparing for the expansion of online sports betting and iGaming in our home province of Ontario, which is expected to commence later this year,” John Levy, founder and CEO of The Score, said in a statement. “The passing of this legislation is momentous, and we are confident that Canada will embrace legal sports betting and become a leader in this rapidly developing and cutting-edge industry.”

“DraftKings has been part of the Canadian sports culture for many years, and through legalized sports betting, the company has another opportunity to further change the way fans in the country engage with their favourite teams, players and leagues,” said DraftKings associate general counsel Griffin Finan.

Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, announced in February that it intends to launch an online casino betting brand.

A legal sports wagering environment will also provide a much-anticipated financial boost to pro leagues through partnerships with the books and selling the data they collect from games. CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie told a Senate committee earlier this month that legal sports betting would be an economic tonic for a league desperately seeking revenue sources after missing the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Less than a decade ago, those same leagues were represented at hearings decrying the potential dangers of legal betting. The Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation suspended wagering on NBA games before then-league commissioner David Stern allowed Toronto a franchise in 1995.

Almost 20 years later, an op-ed by Stern’s replacement, Adam Silver, came out in support of legalized and regulated betting. With the overturn of the ban on single-event betting in the U.S. by the Supreme Court in 2018, other leagues jumped on board. The CFL and NHL have been open in their support for Bill C-218.

“Sports leagues changing their tune was a game-changer,” said Amanda Brewer, an adviser to the Canadian Gaming Association.

David Phillips, chief operating officer of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario — which will be responsible for licensing and regulation — told the Senate committee that fans in the province will be able to legally bet on games before the end of the year. The B.C. Lottery Corporation tweeted Tuesday that “players will soon have the option to wager on the outcome of a single game or match” on its PlayNow platform.

“Some provinces will move extremely quickly,” Burns said. “They’re in a good place to get going.”

Steve McAllister is the editor-in-chief of The Parleh sports betting newsletter. A freelance contributor to the Star’s Sports section, he is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @StevieMacSports