Proposed single game sports betting legislative bill gets voted down in Canada
As of now, single game sports betting is currently illegal throughout Canada. This is why a recently proposed bill was put up to a vote to try and legalize the activity, but it seems as if legislature wasn’t in agreement with the bill as it was voted down. The House of Commons determined on Wednesday that the bill would go no further and would not have a chance to be enacted into law.
The name for the bill was the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, or the more technical name was Bill C-221. It was originally introduced back in February by a member of the New Democratic party Brian Masse. The bill was voted on and came out with a 156 – 133 outcome. This will mean that any
Canadian gamblers that want to place money on sports wagers will have to do so on multi-sport platforms, as betting on only single games will remain a criminal act in Canada. The goal behind the bill was to make an amendment to the current criminal code of paragraph 207 – 4 – b, which currently restricts any sort of sports betting outside of parlay types of bets.
Brian Masse gave a reaction to the vote to CBC News. He stated that organized crime members are celebrating the vote tonight because they can still profit off the single sports betting market behind closed doors while legitimate regulated operators are unable to offer these types of services. He explained his disappointment at the decision and that he believes that as long as single sports betting is to remain illegal, organizations will create illegal ways to do it that will go unregulated and won’t be taxed. He went on to talk about how the current market is a $10 billion dollar industry on an annual basis, and instead of the Canadian government getting a piece of that which could be used for the general public it will instead be locked into the pockets of illegal gambling operators.
Alongside that, Canadian citizens aren’t going to be stopped from betting on single sports betting platforms, but will instead take their business to offshore operators outside of Canadian jurisdiction and about $4 billion in taxes will instead go to outside countries.
This proposed measure was exactly the same as the previous C-290 measure that had been put forth in 2012. When that original measure was voted on by the House of Commons it was approved, but turned down at a later point of the bill process when it went through the Senate.
Many speculate that the failure of the earlier voted bill might have been the reason that some members of the House of Commons were hesitant about approving the bill. Failing before, it wouldn’t make much sense to try and push an identical bill through the Senate again only to see it flounder.
It’s possible that we might see another bill like this at some point down the road, although drafters will need to make some adjustments in order to get the bill approved. As of right now it just isn’t cutting it for lawmakers.