Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey has gone all-in on a federal bill to legalize single-event sports betting.
Bill C-218 would change Canadian Criminal Code provisions about gambling on single games of hockey, football and other sports, which are currently illegal except for horse racing, to win back customers from offshore sites, American casinos and illegal bookmakers.
“We’re trying to land the competitive i-gaming framework in Ontario, so this is an area where you have federal and provincial overlap in sectors,” said Downey, MPP for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-
Betting on single sports games could also eat into the multi-billion-dollar black market by legally opening the books to gamblers who want to bet money on individual games, rather than wagering on fixed-odds on two or more games.
How much money is actually at stake?
“Because it’s not in a regulated market, there’s a lot of speculation,” Downey told BarrieToday. “The bottom line is it’s big money, there’s a lot of money bet and a lot of it’s going out of the jurisdiction. They’re using platforms and tools that are outside of Ontario, it’s out of Canada.”
But he said the Ontario government could get its share with Bill C-218.
“There would be agreements with the different entities that would be running the single-events sports betting or any of the i-gaming and we’ve been talking to them for quite some time,” Downey said. “Back when I was parliamentary assistant to finance, I was engaging with some of them.
“They’re big employers, they have a presence, but they’re operating in an unregulated market,” he added. “Although many of them are very responsible and are asking for this, we just don’t have the structure in place, but we are working on it.”
Bill C-218 is a private member's bill from Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood). The Liberals introduced their own similar legislation last November, which they subsequently dropped when Waugh included its protections for the horse-racing industry into his bill.
The horse-racing industry remains wary of casinos and foreign gambling sites encroaching on its turf.
Downey says C-218 should be a bill that’s free of party politics.
“It’s about individuals being able to be treated like adults and having choice,” the local MPP said. “I don’t think there’s a partisan window on this.”
C-218 has had two readings in the House of Commons and is now being considered by the Senate. Downey said he has also written a letter to Senator Don Plett, leader of the opposition, about the bill’s importance.
But with summer right around the corner and the possibility of a federal election next fall, Downey said the sooner the better.
“I’m impatient. Let’s get it done now,” he said. “It’s in the hands of the Senate. I have reason to believe that they’re taking it seriously. I don’t know their time line, but I think they are all very aware of what could happen if they don’t move expeditiously.”
The prohibition on single-event sports betting was initially to curtail match-fixing, since it’s considered easier when there's just one game to fix, but it became increasingly ineffective with the rise of offshore betting sites.
More than two dozen American states have moved to legalize single-event sports betting after the United States Supreme Court struck down a federal ban in 2018.
Waugh has said the main goal of Bill C-218 is to level the track globally against large foreign sites. Casinos might also benefit, but if the bill passes it will be up to the provinces to decide how to regulate single-event bets.
