Optimism growing over single-game betting bill

Legislation could pass this summer

OTTAWA • It’s not a slam dunk yet, but advocates of single-game sports betting are increasingly optimistic that the bill to legalize it will be through Parliament by summer.

The bill emerged out of the Senate banking committee last week with no amendments, meaning it only needs to pass a final vote in the Senate chamber before heading to royal assent and becoming law.

However, senators can still seek to amend the bill before a third reading vote, and other items could still clog the Senate’s agenda.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Sen. David Wells, the sponsor of the bill in the Senate. “I never want to say this is a done deal until it’s a done deal. I’ve seen too many times where I thought things were a given and it didn’t work out that way ... but I’m cautiously optimistic on what’s got widespread support among my colleagues and among Canadians.”

Justice Minister David Lametti tabled a government bill to legalize single-game betting last fall, but for procedural reasons the actual bill making its way through Parliament is a near-identical private member’s bill, C-218, put forward by Conservative MP Kevin Waugh.

The Criminal Code currently bans wagering on a single sports event, meaning Canadians are only allowed to make parlay bets (betting on multiple events at once.) In practice, however, single-game betting is easily found online through offshore companies or through the black market; the result is that up to $14 billion is wagered annually by Canadians on single sports events in an unregulated market, according to gaming industry estimates.

Opponents of single-game betting — which used to include major sports leagues — worried primarily about its effect on match-fixing, as well as the overall problem of encouraging more gambling behaviour. But in recent years, momentum has swung behind legalizing it given its huge popularity on the unregulated market, where all the same incentives exist but without any consumer protection or tax revenue that can be put into addiction programs.

In its brief to the Senate, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport said it supports legalizing single-game betting as long as strong safeguards are put in place. “The detection of match-fixing affecting Canadian sport cannot be achieved if gambling is taking place overseas on regulated or unregulated sites,” their submission said.

The Responsible Gaming Council also told the Senate it supports the bill, but wants to see “a robust regulatory framework” that emphasizes consumer protection.

A big turning point came in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that restricted single-game betting to Nevada. Many U.S. states are now passing their own laws to allow single-game betting, and sports leagues including the NFL, NHL, NBA and others are now fully supportive of it — and looking for ways to benefit off it.

During Parliament’s study of the bill, advocates of single-game betting presented a PWC report that gave a highend estimate that legalizing single-game betting could see regulated sports gaming revenue grow by 900 per cent within two years, generating about $500 million in additional tax revenue.

However, that scenario depends on how much a regulated sports betting regime in Canada can take back market share from the offshore grey market.

Paul Burns, CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, said it’s very hard to give a solid estimate of how much tax revenue legalized single-game betting will bring, given that gaming is provincially regulated.

“The rollout will not look the same in every jurisdiction,” Burns said. “Most are talking about online because they have platforms. Maybe some casino sportsbooks (will offer it). Is it going to be at the lottery retailer kiosks in every jurisdiction? I don’t know. I know people are talking about numbers, and there’s lots of them, but it depends on how it rolls out.”

But Burns said he’s seen the conversation completely change around single-game betting over the past decade.

“I’ve been at it for 11 years,” he said. “The conversation, funny enough, a lot of it’s the same: the need for regulation, oversight, player protection, bringing economic benefits within the country.”

He said the biggest shift happened when the U.S. Supreme Court decision came down and the sports leagues came on board, which hugely expanded the market for single-game betting and made it much more mainstream.

“You’re seeing the advertising and promotions, Wayne Gretzky being signed by Bet MGM (as a brand ambassador),” Burns said. “It shows up on people’s TVS, it shows up on their streaming feeds. The United States has embraced this.”

Wells said that the bill has broad political support in Parliament, with the overwhelming sentiment being that the potential problems with sports gambling are best dealt with in a regulated environment.

The Senate did hear an objection from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, who supported the bill in general but wanted it amended to specifically protect Indigenous gaming rights. But Wells said this is outside the purview of the bill and an issue for provincial governments to tackle, given they have jurisdiction on gaming regulation.

Bill C-218 is likely to come up for third reading debate this week in the Senate, and could get a vote soon afterward.