Every morning, every online gambler wakes up with the hope they won in one of their sports bets. Life for an online gambler, for example Steve is made up of waking early in the morning and jumping straight to their computers. Life is good for Steve on the days he manages to score some winnings after wagering a few hundred dollars on two NBA games and he wins on both of these games. He won the bets on San Antonio Spurs and the hometown Raptors. He loyally carries out research on every game, both in the morning and in the evening. However, Steve considers all these as normal; to him it is not an addiction but a way of earning extra profit. He also adds that his friends also engage in sports betting.

Funny enough most of these sports betting accounts are not in existence in Canada but are in areas such as Antigua, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man or the United Kingdom. These places are known to entice gamblers who are based in countries where sports betting is illegal, making all these quite suspicious. Since the start of internet gambling sites more than twenty years ago, Canadian authorities have not put any interest in the multi-billion-dollar project thus only allow its operation in secluded areas where it is less likely to take place. Michael Lipton who is a gaming law practitioner with Dickinson Wright in Toronto argues that the reason where sports gambling sites consider Canada as a grey area is the fact that there have been no prosecutions in the area.

The major question remains unanswered as to why the Canadian government ignores online sports betting. Lawyer Chad Finkelstein says that the reason is that the provinces in Canada that practice gambling are mostly grey zone areas and the gaming constitution laws have never been updated since the 1960s. These laws do not ban gambling in those offshore areas and if the Canadian government stopped their operation, the online bookmakers would sue them. Sports betting have also become easy as the online sports betters can deposit and withdraw their funds directly from their homes. These transactions openly happen in very big and recognized Canadian banks. Sports’ betting is even a major contributor of profits to most of these banks.

In Canada players are able to wager up to $4 billion annually though the sports books located in Europe or in other places of the world. This is according to the vice president of the Canadian Gaming Association, Paul Burns.Lipton agrees that sports betting could be a huge contributor of revenues for the Canadian government.

Senate has now eradicated Bill C-290. This bill which was agreed by the senate and the House of Commons claims that betting sites would be allowed to legalize the betting of a single outcome event. The bill was first initiated by Windsor New Democrat MP Joe Comartin in 2012 who was the Minister of Federal Justice. It was later to be seconded by Conservative MP Rob Nicholson. It would later emerge that no one went against it and it went through unopposed.

The fact that bettors could merge two events and wage on them made Americans cross the border to Canada to have this opportunity and due to this two betting sites namely; Casino Niagara and Caesars Windsor took the chance to initiate the service for the incoming American visitors. In turn the process would generate huge revenue for the government as well as creation of job opportunities for the Canadians.

Moreover, the provincial governments have initiated a plan where they would deter the acquisitions of cash to organized crimes that is emanating from the unlawful betting on sports.

It has been claimed by the Canadian Gaming Association that more than $40 billion has been conducted via online or by individuals for the last three years since the this bill was passed by the senate in 2012. The CEO of Canadian Gaming Association Bill Rutsey claimed that the stories have been highlighted several times by the media. He gave an example where a police officer was detained when he involved himself with mafia bookmaker on illegal betting. He added that there was evident co-operation between Hells Angels and the Platinum Sportsbook bust from Super Bowl 2013. By this he meant that the beneficiaries of the illegal betting is not the government but rather gang sections as well as offshore operators and these don’t have a regulatory licenses to operate.

Implying on these happenings, the senate would have rather voted for the bill which has foreseen the government lose a lot of revenue from taxes and this would lower the economic growth of the nation. Generally it was a wrong idea for the senators who in turn should not be elected back to the parliament come the elections.

Good news to wagers in Canada is that they can now bet on single sports. This comes after NBA claimed that it will support the idea despite it going against Bill C-290. This was reported by the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA) said this week. Since the legalization of betting in Canada, Criminal Code in the country has always checked on the single betting and only allowed multi betting where punters collectively sum up their bets through provincial lottery operators. The main reason behind this was that more often than not, addiction would follow single betting as well as match fixing.

Advocators to this bill claimed that provincial lottery corporation would cash in millions of money; cash that would belong to the unlicensed offshore markets who by now are the only operators that have been providing for Canada’s kinkier betting requirements.

Multi-billion-dollar Gray Market

It has been claimed that more than $10 billion has been the revenue generated annually by single event betting. Hockey league games have generated income to more than 220 betting firms with another 120 Canadian Football league also generating income. The Canadian League is posted by more than 130 betting sites.

It was back in 2012 that the NBA opposed the bill claiming that it would kill off the affiliation between the league and its royal supporters.

A statement from the NBA during hearing of the Senate of Canada’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee this week claimed that they are no longer bothered with opposing legalization of sports betting in Canada. However, their condition was that there should be the implementation of a suitable legislative structure that would safeguard the veracity of the game. This would however be based upon severe authoritarian obligation as well as technical safeguards.

NBA head Adam Silver claimed that the congress should put in place centralized structure that would give mandate to the state in giving authority in professional sports which would be subjected to stern requirements.

However, other main sport leagues based in North America have been flexible to the idea with C-290 still standing to be a long shot which has been the main basis in which punters in Canada bet on.