The Canadian Senate approved Bill C-218 which will legalize betting on single games of various sports. The bill was approved with a majority vote of 57-20 and only requires a royal assent for it to now become a law. As of now, only horse betting is legal in Canada.
This major change in betting legalization is designed to curb illegal betting in Canada and also to boost the state coffers going forward.
Canadians will soon be able to bet on multiple sports including ice hockey and American football.
Sponsored by Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, the sports betting bill received overwhelming support from the four main parties. It is not surprising considering this is the third time the bill has entered the Canadian legal system.
The first couple of occasions that bill did not get enough support and fizzled out but this time around there was a lot of optimism that single game sports betting would be legalized as state legislators realized that they were losing out millions as illegal betting operators were capitalizing on the Canadian market big time.
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The first time a sports betting bill was introduced was in 2015 and it got good support in the House of Commons. However, it was stopped in the Senate. The second attempt at legalizing single-event sports betting was launched by New Democrat MP Brian Masse in 2016. However, it faced opposition from both Liberals and Conservatives.
In November 2020, the Liberals got behind a similar bill but they dropped that bill to support Waugh’s bill. This was when he agreed to add protective measures for the horse-racing industry into his popular bill which went on to get the support it needed to pass in the House in February 2021.
Waugh’s bill received support not just from state legislators but also from professional sports leagues in Canada. Some of the leagues that supported this bill included the National Hockey League and the Canadian Football League.
State legislators are confident that with a legalized sports betting market in Canada, it will significantly reduce the number of offshore betting operators and unlicensed betting operators from doing business in Canada. This will benefit the legalized betting industry and in turn generate more revenue for the government in the form of betting taxes.
Provincial governments will be setting up their own rules and regulations on how to handle and tax the industry. The potential revenue will help support health care, education, and other necessary government projects.
A number of provincial governments are already getting ready for the influx of bettors. The British Columbia Lottery Corporation is hoping to get in early with its PlayNow.com platform while Ontario is looking to implement new regulations and licensing rules before the end of 2021.
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