Canadian Gaming Association Wants Single Sport Betting

The president of the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) has called Senators to change the Canadian gambling laws in favor of the private members bill C0290.

C0290, “An Act to Amend the Criminal Code” affecting the future of Canadian sports betting, currently awaits its third reading in the Senate.

CGA president Bill Rutsey informed: “We have a clear choice: either allow billions to go offshore and through illegal book making operations, or offer Canadians a legal alternative, supervised by our provincial regulators, capturing revenue for government and creating good-paying, permanent new jobs.”

The new legislation would allow punters to wager on a single sporting outcome rather than having to select at least two or three winners as they have to now.

Rutsey says the new law will reduce organized crime and match fixing. The president also hopes that the amendment would create jobs and yield new revenue.

The bill was introduced by NDP MP Joe Comartin last year. Individual provinces and gambling experts support it, and it was unanimously approved in the House of Commons in March 2012.

The value of illegal single event sports betting in Canada is estimated to be at least $10 billion annually. The money is going through illegal bookmakers linked to organized crime. $4 billion of it is played through offshore online casinos aimed at Canadians. These operations are not regulated by neither country nor provincial regulators.