'Instead of quickly enacting a law that would redirect that money to Canadian jobs and businesses, Justin Trudeau is allowing billions of dollars a year to fall into the hands of big multinational companies and criminals.' Widely expected move 'Offshore gaming sites and sportsbooks operated by criminal organizations bring in $38 million of Canadian wagers every day,' Waugh said in a statement on Wednesday, before Lametti's announcement. It received royal assent at the end of June, making it official, but it wasn't until this week that the governing Liberals attached a date to its implementation: just over two weeks from now, on Aug. 27. The law, known as Bill C-218, was a private member's bill brought forward by Kevin Waugh, Conservative MP for Saskatoon-Grasswood, but despite coming from the opposition, it won support in Parliament from all four main parties.

Sharks' Evander Kane denies gambling allegations made by wife.

'We have an opportunity to regulate, control it and take the money out of the hands of organized crime.' Catharines, Ont., MP Chris Bittle, who attended the event. 'Canadians have been betting on sports for a long time, but there's been a relic in the Criminal Code that has prevented betting on individual events,' said St. The new rules have the potential to bring that money back into Canada in a way that it can be monitored and taxed. An additional $4 billion a year gets spent by Canadians in the so-called grey market, in offshore jurisdictions where such bets are legal.

'Canadians will have the opportunity to participate in single-event sport betting in a regulated and safe environment, at the discretion of the provinces and territories,' Attorney General David Lametti told a news conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Thursday.Īccording to the federal government, Canadians spend about $10 billion a year on single sporting events as part of betting conducted illegally in the black market by organized criminal networks. 27 - merely allows provinces to regulate sports betting as they see fit. The news doesn't open up the floodgates, however: The federal law - which will be in force as of Aug. The federal government has made it legal to gamble on individual sporting events, bringing legitimacy to a murky industry on which Canadians already spend billions of dollars a year.

Online betting on football games