Canada’s sports bettors may be thrilled by the debut of yet another single-game wagering bill, although this one is likely doomed to suffer the fate of its two predecessors.
On Tuesday, Windsor-West MP Brian Masse announced that he was transferring control of C-218, his latest bill to legalize single-event sports betting (SESB), to Saskatoon-Grasswood MP Kevin Waugh, in the hopes that the third time’s the charm for Canada’s sports bettors.
Masse (pictured, at podium) is a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) while Waugh is a Conservative, while the parliamentary agenda is controlled by the ruling Liberals. However, each session of parliament features a lottery to allow a certain number of opposition MPs to submit private members’ bills (PMB) for debate in the House of Commons, and Waugh drew a low number this year.
Masse himself won that lottery in January 2016, which allowed him to introduce his C-221 bill, which ultimately went down to defeat later that year when most of the Liberals voted against its passage. Prior to that, Masse introduced C-290, which somehow made it successfully through the House in 2012 before the unelected Senate showed a rare bit of backbone and refused to give the bill their rubber stamp of approval.