>The History of Sports Betting in Canada and How It Became Mainstream
For decades, Canadians who wanted to bet on a single hockey game or a Sunday football matchup had no legal way to do it. The government permitted parlays and nothing else, which meant you could wager on 3 or more games bundled together, but picking one winner on one game was off limits. That restriction held for over 35 years. It shaped how an entire country thought about sports wagering, pushed money toward offshore operators, and created a market that the provinces could not properly tax or regulate. The path from a failed federal lottery in 1984 to a province like Ontario processing close to $100 billion in annual wagers is a long one, and it moved through bureaucratic fights, criminal code amendments, and a pandemic that forced lawmakers to reconsider what they had been putting off.
A Federal Lottery That Lasted Months
The federal government made betting on sports like baseball, hockey, and football legal in 1984 through a national sports lottery called Sport Select. The program ran into resistance almost immediately. Provincial governments were hostile to it, and the operation was hemorrhaging roughly $1 million a week. Sport Select was cancelled within the same year it launched.
That failure had lasting consequences. In 1985, an amendment to the Criminal Code handed sports betting authority to the provinces but with a firm condition: they could only offer it in a lottery format. This meant parlay betting exclusively. You had to pick the outcomes of multiple games to place a single wager. No province could legally offer a bet on one game at a time.
Parlays and PRO·LINE: The Only Game Available
Ontario's lottery corporation launched PRO·LINE in 1992 as a parlay sports betting product sold through retail locations. Other provinces had similar parlay products under their own lottery systems. The odds on these products were generally poor compared to what private sportsbooks offered elsewhere in the world, and bettors who wanted single-game action had to look outside the country to find it.
This arrangement persisted for a very long time. Offshore sportsbook websites filled the gap throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. Canadian bettors sent their money to operators licensed in places like Malta, Curacao, and the Isle of Man. The provinces collected nothing from these transactions. Law enforcement rarely pursued individual bettors using offshore sites, so the practice grew steadily and with little friction.
Where Canadians Place Their Bets Now
After Bill C-218 received royal assent on June 29, 2021, provinces moved at different speeds to build regulated markets. Ontario launched first and processed roughly $98.3 billion in wagers in 2025, a 26% increase year over year. Alberta followed with its iGaming Alberta Act, which received royal assent on May 12, 2025, with a regulated launch expected around late Q2 or early Q3 2026.
These provincial markets brought licensed platforms into the open. Retail options like PRO·LINE, online sportsbooks in Canada, and province-run apps now compete for the same bettors who once relied on offshore sites or parlay-only lottery products.
How Bill C-218 Got Through Parliament
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh introduced Bill C-218 on February 25, 2020. The bill proposed a specific change: amending section 207(4)(b) of the Criminal Code to remove the prohibition on single-event sports betting. Waugh argued that billions of dollars were already flowing to unregulated offshore operators and that legalizing single-game bets would let provinces capture that revenue.
The bill received support from sports leagues, provincial lottery corporations, and several municipal governments near the U.S. border who had watched American states legalize sports betting one after another following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling. Bill C-218 received royal assent on June 29, 2021, and single-event betting became legal across Canada.
Ontario Sets the Pace
Ontario moved faster than any other province to build a regulated market. The province created a framework that allowed private operators to apply for licenses and offer betting products directly to consumers. The numbers from that market tell their own story. In 2025, Ontario's regulated operators processed approximately $98.3 billion in wagers, generating $4.0 billion in gross gaming revenue, which represented a 34% increase over the prior year. By January 2026, the province recorded 1.32 million active player accounts in a single month.
No other province has matched this scale so far. Alberta passed its iGaming Alberta Act on March 31, 2025, and it received royal assent on May 12, 2025. Senior provincial officials have said the regulated market could go live around late Q2 or early Q3 of 2026. Other provinces continue to run their betting operations through government-owned lottery corporations.
The Advertising Question
With legal betting came advertising, and with advertising came public concern. Senator Marty Deacon introduced Bill S-211, which passed through the Senate without opposition and now sits before the House of Commons. The bill aims to establish a national framework focused on restricting the volume, scope, and placement of sports betting ads.
This legislation responds to a visible increase in betting commercials during live sports broadcasts and on social media platforms. Provinces have some of their own advertising guidelines, but a federal framework would apply uniformly across the country. The bill has not yet received a final vote in the House.
Where Things Stand
Canada spent 35 years restricting sports betting to a parlay lottery format before legalizing single-game wagers in 2021. Ontario's market has grown rapidly and now serves over a million active bettors per month. Alberta is preparing to open a regulated market of its own in 2026, and federal lawmakers are debating how aggressively to regulate the advertising that comes with all of it. The legal foundation has changed, the money has moved from offshore operators toward provincial systems, and the policy conversations have shifted from legalization to oversight.