Single-game sports betting allowed in Canada as of Aug. 27
Posted August 11, 2021 2:51 pm.
Last Updated August 12, 2021 2:42 pm.
Canadians will be able to place bets on single sporting events like the Super Bowl or Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final by the end of this month.
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti confirmed the update at a news conference at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ont.
“This law will come into force on August 27, 2021,” Lametti said.
Lametti says Bill C-218 will allow Canadians to bet on individual games “in a regulated and safe environment.”
The Canadian Gaming Association estimates Canadians spend $14-billion each year on bets made with offshore companies or illegal bookies and organized crime.
Canadians, get ready to place your bets.
August 27th is the day bets on single sporting events will be allowed in Canada, with the exception is horse racing.
The Justice Minister making the announcement in Niagara Falls #cdnpoli— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) August 12, 2021
A bill from Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood) to end the ban on single-game betting was passed earlier this year and received royal assent at the end of June. The legislation left it up to the government to decide when the rules take effect.
“This is just another example of the Trudeau Liberals choosing to implement the laws they like while delaying the ones they don’t,” Waugh said in a statement Wednesday.
Waugh’s bill marked the third time a would-be law with the same goal has blazed a trail through Parliament, but none have made it this far.
The current law forces Canadians to place bets on multiple events to prevent fixing in sports. However, gaming associations say that it has just driven billions of dollars to illegal bookies.
The legislation has been embraced by the Canadian Football League (CFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and other professional sports. It has also garnered tentative support from a tight-knit equestrian community that remains wary of casinos and foreign gambling sites encroaching on its turf.
Since the bill’s passing, provincial gaming authorities have been working on changing their systems to allow for single bets.
Sports betting has become wildly popular in recent years. theScore, an established presence in Canada’s sports media space, announced that it would start gunning for the U.S. online sports betting market earlier this year.
More than two dozen U.S. states have moved to legalize single-event sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban in 2018, potentially siphoning off customers from Ontario casinos in Windsor and Niagara Falls.
Penn National Gaming and Score Media & Gaming (theScore) announced this week the pair have joined forces in a $2 billion acquisition to enhance the sports media and gambling landscape.
theScore, known previously as The Score Television Network, was acquired by Rogers Communications in October 2012 and is today known as Sportsnet 360.
Rogers is the parent company of 680 NEWS.
With files from The Canadian Press
