Canada’s sports betting bill running out of time

Our readers will be familiar with the long, sad saga of a bid to legalise single-game sports betting in the Great White North, but to recap:

Originally introduced in Canada’s House of Commons as private members bill C-290, the proposal sailed through the Commons largely unopposed and went to the Senate, where it survived two of a required three readings despite sustained attempts to run it out of time by a relatively small block of conservative senators citing societal and procedural concerns.

This has gone on for over three years (see previous reports), with the bill never achieving a Senate vote…and now there’s the summer adjournment looming next week, followed by elections, which means that if the bill is not voted on it’s all the way back to square one and a new introduction in the Commons.

The bill itself is hardly revolutionary; it proposes amending the Criminal Code to permit single-game sports betting in addition to the parlay sports wagering currently allowed.

Probably coming too late to make a difference, the National Basketball Association has issued a statement effectively announcing that it has changed its mind and no longer opposes C-290. Other major sports leagues remain opposed, however.

This week, the Canadian Gaming Association, a trade body for the gaming industry, again urged the Senate to pass C-290 in the current session, but that appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

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