Canada’s single-game sports betting plans have failed to convert after legislators voted down the measure.

Wednesday saw a vote in the House of Commons on C-221, the private members’ bill introduced in February by New Democratic Party MP Brian Masse. The bill sought to scrap a single line of the Criminal Code that restricts provincial gambling monopolies from offering anything other than parlay sports wagers.

Sadly, the vote was 156-133 against C-221’s passage. A couple dozen members of the ruling Liberal party voted in favor of the bill, against the wishes of party leaders, who formally opposed C-221 in April, despite having voted in favor of an identical bill (C-290) in 2012 when they were still in opposition.

Earlier this month, word circulated that Liberal backbencher Chris Bittle was pushing his leaders to permit a free vote on C-221. He got his wish, but Bittle – whose constituency is, like Masse, is in a city close to the US border and thus hoped legal sports betting would draw US tourists – evidently failed to convince enough rank-and-file Liberals to publicly reject their leaders’ stance.