Canada Overwhelmingly Passes New Bill Bringing Single Game Sports Betting One Step Closer

Canada’s Parliament voted on Wednesday to pass MP Kevin Waugh’s Bill C-218 which will allow Canadians to take part in single game sports betting.

At the moment, Canadians can only make parlay bets — a bet that combines two bets on one ticket — on sporting events.

Although the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of Bill C-218, there are still a few more hurdles before it can become law. The bill will now go before the Justice Committee and then the senate. Once it makes it through those reviews, it will then go before the Governor-General for Royal Assent.

“The positive outcome of today’s vote demonstrates the continuing momentum and strong cross-party support for this issue. We expect that the legalization of single event sports betting will facilitate the introduction by provinces and territories of a much-needed modernized sports betting framework in their respective jurisdictions that can include important consumer protections and the ability to generate new revenue streams for provincial and territorial governments.”

Levy went on to add:

Once both bills have passed into law, it will then be up to local governments and individual provinces to decide how to license and manage single-game sports betting products.

David Burke

London based reporter covering all aspects of the global regulated and unregulated land-based and online gambling industry - including business news, sports-betting, casinos, poker & regulation