As of now it is currently illegal and considered criminal activity to place a wager on a single sporting event under Canadian federal law. Currently, legislation has been introduced that might change that, as it would allow for the legalization of single sports betting before the end of the month. If the new legislature is successful, players may be able to start betting on single sports event as early as September 21st.
The Legal Sports Report recently released an updated that outlined that the new measure would be called C-221 and when put into effect it would adjust the current legislature so that punters would now be allowed to put down bets on specific sporting and athletic events, which would be added on to the parlay bets that are already legalized. The more common name for the new measure would be the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act which is how it was put forth earlier in the year by sponsor Brian Masse.
The House Of Commons out of Ottawa will now have the opportunity to either turn down the bill or they can send it off to the Justice and Human Rights Committee so that it can be further reviewed and potentially put in place. This will take place over the course of the next two weeks. If the committee choose to refer it then the bill has a pretty good chance of being passed down to the Senate for a vote, but if they decide to veto the bill instead than the matter would be closed until around the year 2021.
This isn’t the first time that a bill like this has tried to make its way into law. There was a previous bill that was known as C-290 that had made it past the lower House of Commons five years ago in 2011. Once it got through it went on to the Senate, but didn’t gain enough support to be introduced as law.
The report released by Legal Sports Report did make sure to note that the new C-221 has already been placed through two different periods of discussion within the House Of Commons, and the latest one was held back in June. Tracey Ramsey, who works as the MP under the southern Ontario Essex, made a statement that Canadians are spending over $500 million each year on legal sports betting, and by allowing the bill to pass it would provide regional benefits for the tourism market. Alongside her was Democrat Kennedy Stewart who declared that single game sports betting was already happening in Canada, and by allowing for it to be legalized would help to create transparency and bring it forward.
Either way, there’s a lot at stake over these next few weeks. It will be a long time before a bill like this would be voted on again if it does end up being vetoed, but if approved it’s quite likely that it will pass into law. This would open up the market for sports betting that would benefit both consumers and betting platforms alike.
