Bill C-218 Explained: What Single-Event Betting Changed in Canada

The change in one paragraph of the Criminal Code

Section 207 of the Criminal Code is the provision that lets a province's government conduct and manage lottery schemes under provincial law. For years its definition of a lottery scheme carved out bookmaking and the making or recording of bets on a race, a fight or a single sport event, which is why provincial products such as Pro-Line were built around multi-game parlays. Bill C-218, known as the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, replaced paragraph 207(4)(b). The new paragraph covers bookmaking, pool selling and the making or recording of bets on a horse race only, so single-event wagers on other sport are no longer outside the section.

The bill was a private member's bill sponsored by MP Kevin Waugh and received Royal Assent on 29 June 2021, becoming S.C. 2021, c. 20 according to the federal legislative tracker. The statute itself says it comes into force on a day fixed by order of the Governor in Council, so the date was set separately: the Department of Justice announced in August 2021 that the amendments would take effect on 27 August 2021. The text of the Act is on the Justice Laws Website.

What changed and what did not

The federal announcement describes the effect plainly: provinces and territories can conduct and manage single-event sport betting in their jurisdictions, online or at physical venues, and participation is at their discretion. Three consequences follow.

• Nothing became legal everywhere at once. Each province decides whether to offer single-event betting, through which operator, and under which rules.
• Horse racing was not touched. Betting on horse races remains under federal oversight through the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency.
• The amendment is not a licence for a business to open to the public. The authority still runs through the province's government under paragraph 207(1)(a), which is why the practical question for a player is always which provincial framework a site sits in.

You can see the federal explanation in the Department of Justice announcement. Our own summary of the wider legal picture is on the gambling laws page.

A worked example: why parlays and singles are different bets

Before the change, the only legal way to bet on a favourite was to attach it to other selections. Take our own illustrative numbers: three games where you believe each outcome has a 55 per cent chance of occurring.

The arithmetic is simply 0.55 multiplied by itself. A parlay multiplies the chance of losing as well as the price, so a view on a single game could be expressed only by accepting a much lower probability of being paid. Single-event betting allows a stake on exactly one outcome, and it also opens the door to in-game wagers on a single match. A single does not make betting less risky; it removes a structural constraint on how the wager is built. Our sports betting overview covers the market types.

Why two different dates appear in the news

Reports from 2021 quote both 29 June and 27 August, and both are right. A bill becomes law when it receives Royal Assent, but this Act contains a clause providing that it comes into force on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council. Parliament therefore passed the text in June, and the government chose the date it began to apply. The two dates are separated by the time between passing the text and starting to apply it, and no single-event wager could be lawfully taken under the amended paragraph before the second. When you read a source that gives only one date, check which of the two it means: the first is the date of the law, the second is the date a player could actually place the bet.

How the provinces implemented it

Because the legal authority is provincial, implementation differs. The table below shows what we could confirm from official sources; for anything else, the provincial lottery corporation or regulator is the place to check.

Ontario

Ontario separated itself by opening a competitive market. iGaming Ontario launched the regulated market on 4 April 2022, and the operators at launch offered both casino games and sports betting. Each registered site is conducted and managed by either iGaming Ontario or the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, per the AGCO. The options listed by the regulator include registered online sites and apps, OLG's Proline Plus online and Proline at registered retailers, and sportsbooks at some casinos. Players are expected to be of age, coaches, athletes and referees are barred from betting on certain events, and operators may suspend or cancel bets tied to suspicious activity. See the AGCO's sport and event betting page and the iGaming Ontario launch notice. How that differs from sites registered elsewhere is explained in our registered-versus-offshore comparison.

Quebec

Loto-Quebec's Mise-o-jeu platform states that single-event betting is available, letting a customer bet on just one event, such as who will win the game, by adding a single prediction to the betslip and entering a stake. The page does not give an effective date, so we do not attach one. Details are on Loto-Quebec's single bet page.

Alberta

Alberta's government states that its regulated iGaming market officially launched on 13 July 2026, with the Alberta iGaming Corporation overseeing the market and Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) as regulator. The government page we read does not say whether sports betting is part of that market, so check AGLC before assuming a given product is available. Our page on online gambling in Alberta covers the local context, while our comparison of provincial lottery sites sets the provincial models side by side. The government's explanation is on its iGaming strategy page.

What C-218 means for a site you find online

The change did not turn every website that accepts Canadian bets into a legal one. The federal framing is that provinces and territories conduct and manage the activity, so the question to ask of a sportsbook is which province authorises it and who regulates it. In Ontario that is visible in the operator's registration and in the iGaming Ontario logo that players are told to look for; elsewhere it is the provincial lottery corporation's own site. A foreign-licensed sportsbook may still accept Canadians, but it sits outside the provincial structure, with the consequences for complaints and protections that we describe in the registered-versus-offshore comparison.

A short checklist before you bet

• Identify the province you are in and the operator the province names for sports betting.
• Confirm that the site is registered or run by the provincial corporation, not simply that it accepts Canadian dollars.
• Read the rules for voiding and cancelling bets, which differ between operators.
• Note that the tax position depends on whether play is a hobby or a business, as covered in our article on hobby versus business gambling.
• Set limits before the game starts, since in-play betting makes decisions fast. ConnexOntario offers free, confidential help on 1-866-531-2600.