Single-event sports betting will be legalized in Canada if Bill C-218 passes the Senate.

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Kirti Pathak
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Canada Bill C-218

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Betting on individual football, hockey, and other sports events is soon to become legal in Canada. The Senate has adopted Bill C-218, a private member's bill that alters Criminal Code laws governing gambling on single sports games, which is currently illegal save for horse racing, in an effort to reclaim customers from offshore sites, U.S. casinos, and illicit bookmakers.

The bill was adopted by the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 57-20. It is now awaiting royal assent before becoming legislation. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh's idea has sparked renewed interest from MPs from all four major parties, and it is the third time a bill with the identical purpose has made its way through Parliament — but never this far.

Similar legislation sailed through the House of Commons with unanimous support nearly a decade ago but died in the Senate after an election was called in 2015. A second effort by New Democrat MP Brian Masse likewise failed in 2016, when the then-Liberal majority voted down his private member's bill in collaboration with Conservatives.

The Liberals then took a chance with their own proposal in November, which they later dropped after Waugh agreed to incorporate its protections for the horse-racing sector into his plan. In February, the law was enacted by the House of Commons with bipartisan support.

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The Canadian Football League, National Hockey League, and other professional sports have endorsed the measure. It has also received preliminary backing from a close-knit equestrian community that is apprehensive of casinos and international gambling sites invading its territory.

Conservative Senator David Wells, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, projected that legalizing Las Vegas-style betting on single games will eat into the multibillion-dollar criminal market and transfer the cash into provincial government coffers.

Currently, he told the Senate during the final debate last week, "Canadians are placing billions of dollars in bets yearly through these sites, which are completely unregulated in Canada."

Wells noted that provincial governments, which regulate gambling in Canada, have been clamoring for single-event betting to be legalized, arguing that it would generate billions of dollars in income that could be used to fund addiction research, health care, education, and other objectives.

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