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OTTAWA — With Canada’s casinos ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has moved to legalize single-game sports betting — a policy long called for by the gaming industry, labour unions and most provincial governments.

Justice Minister David Lametti has given notice of a bill to amend the Criminal Code on single-game betting, and a news conference is planned for Thursday.

The Criminal Code currently bans wagering on a single sports event, meaning Canadians are only allowed to make parlay bets (betting on multiple events at once.) In practice, however, single-game betting is easily found online through offshore companies and the black market, and industry groups say Canadians spend billions of dollars on it every year.

The situation was exacerbated in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that restricted single-game betting to Nevada, opening the gates for every U.S. state to bring it in. Since then, professional sports leagues have dropped their opposition to it and even embraced it as a new revenue source.

Federal Government Gambling Commission

Proponents of legalized single-game betting argue it not only brings jobs and economic benefit, but also allows for consumer protection and for some of the revenue to be put into mental health and addiction programs — revenue that is currently lost when the gambling is done illegally.

Over the past decade, NDP MP Brian Masse — who represents a Windsor riding with a downtown casino — has put forward multiple private members bills in Parliament to legalize it. But the bills either died in the Senate or were defeated by votes, including in 2016 when Liberal MPs voted down his bill.

Masse said he’s thrilled to see a government bill brought forward, even if it’s long overdue.

“This is ideally where we want the bill to be: unified in the House of Commons and for a government to make it into legislation that you can get passed very quickly, not only in the House, but also the Senate,” he said.

He said he’s had a good experience discussing the issue with Lametti as justice minister.

“We’re grateful that Minister Lametti has taken over the bill, he’s going to be a strong champion for it,” Masse said. “He’s well aware of the issues.”

The Liberals did not include single-game betting in their 2019 election platform, and there are still mixed views in caucus about it.

“What we know about casinos and the trouble they are having right now is that they are losing a demographic because they have effectively bankrupted it,” said Liberal MP Adam Vaughan on Nov. 3 in the House of Commons, debating a private member’s bill on single-game betting brought by Conservative MP Kevin Waugh.

“Then they prey on the next demographic coming down the road,” Vaughan said. “In this case, casinos are now looking for single-event sports betting as a way of supplementing their income because they are losing on all other fronts.”

But Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk, who represents the Windsor-Tecumseh riding, boasted about the government’s move on his Twitter account Tuesday night. “Working hard since Day 1 for this very moment,” he posted. “Excited our Government will be introducing Single Sports Betting legislation this week.”

(Lametti’s office would not comment on a bill that hasn’t yet been introduced in Parliament.)

Both the Bloc Quebecois and the Conservatives indicated their support for single-game betting during debate over Waugh’s bill.

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Paul Burns, CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, said Canadian casinos and provincial lotteries must be able to compete on a “level playing field” with the unregulated online market, noting the pandemic has only made things worse.

Burns said about 90,000 casino workers were out of work at the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring. Casinos in some jurisdictions have since been allowed to reopen, but at substantially reduced capacity.

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“It’s tremendous to see the government do this to help our economic recovery, level the playing field, and give Canadians a legal choice where the economic benefits are going to stay in the country,” Burns said.

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He believes all parties will support moving this bill through quickly, despite past opposition from some of them.

“They recognize that the world is changing underneath them, and their positions changed,” he said.

Most provincial governments have called on Ottawa to legalize single-game betting, including Ontario, which wrote to the federal government in 2019 asking for the Criminal Code to be amended.

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During his House of Commons testimony on Nov. 3, Waugh — the Conservative MP who introduced the most recent bill — cited an email written to him by Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews.

“Removing these barriers to allow for provincially regulated alternatives would not only provide the provinces with financial benefits for their communities and social programs, but would also provide gaming consumers with security and integrity that is inherent in provincially-regulated gaming,” Toews said in the email.

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