Canadian Sports Betting Bill May Return

The Senate could once again be soon reviewing a Canadian sports betting bill. (Photo credit: Tony Webster via Foter.com / CC BY)


An on-again, off-again attempt to bring government regulated single-game sports betting in Canada will soon be back on again.

Windsor-West MP Brian Masse, of the NDP, has vowed to revive the C-290 Canadian sports betting bill that once passed through the House of Commons but died last summer when the Senate didn’t ratify it before the federal election in October.

Bill C-290 proposes to change the Canadian Criminal Code wording that limits provincial sports lotteries to offering only parlay wagering (several games combined on a ticket) to allow single-game sports betting in Canada.

Masse’s name was picked seventh in a recent parliamentary lottery that determines the order in which private members (MPs not from the governing party, in this case the Liberals) can propose bills. Masse’s primary motivation appears to be to benefit casinos in his home riding, including Caesars Windsor, though the passage of C-290 would affect sports betting in Canada across the country.

Even if Bill C-290 eventually were to pass, however, questions remain as to how governments would implement online sports betting in Canada. Odds offered by the provincial sports lotteries are drastically inferior to those offered by online sportsbooks, which have long offered single-game sports betting in Canada.

If Canadian governments continued to offer significantly worse odds than online sportsbooks, it’s likely that Canadians would still be better off doing their sports betting offshore – which is not illegal, according to the Canadian Criminal Code.