Legalising single-event sports betting in Canada will have a positive impact on casino operations, the Canadian Gaming Association said.
Earlier this month, Bill C-290 permitting single-event sports wagering received all-party support within the House of Commons and has now been passed to the Senate for consideration.
Sports wagering in Canada is estimated to be worth more than $10bn a year, yet only a fraction of that - $450m – is wagered through provincial sports lottery products. This, the association said, means Canadians are increasingly placing wagers through offshore sports books or illegal bookmakers.
Legal sports betting has been a priority for the CGA as it may provide new opportunities for the country’s land-based casinos, president and CEO Bill Rutsey told InterGaming.
“We have been working on the sports betting file for more than three years and hope to see it come to a successful conclusion this year,” he said. “Real sports books in Canadian casinos will be a potentially significant product of differentiation and visitation driver for properties bordering the US, as betting on sports is huge and the only legal alternative presently in North America is in Nevada.”
In its most recent economic study, the CGA reported that legal gaming in Canada has tripled in size since 1995. In 2010, total industry revenue stood at $16bn, of which $8.3bn was generated by the country’s casinos.
Read the full Keynote Interview with Bill Rutsey of the Canadian Gaming Association in the April issue of InterGaming.
