Sports betting law in Canada

Short answer: yes, betting on a single game is lawful in Canada when it is run or licensed by a province. That has been the case since August 27, 2021. What changes from province to province is who runs it, how old you must be, and whether private sportsbooks are part of the picture. This page sets out the law from the statutes and the provincial operators' own pages. It is a plain-language summary, not legal advice.

The federal law in two steps

Gambling in Canada starts from the Criminal Code. Betting, bookmaking and lotteries are prohibited except where the Code carves out an exception. The key carve-out is section 207(1)(a): the government of a province may "conduct and manage a lottery scheme" in that province under provincial law. Sports betting lives inside that exception.

Until 2021, paragraph 207(4)(b) kept bets on "any race or fight or on a single sport event or athletic contest" out of what provinces could offer. That is why provincial sports products used to be parlays only: you had to pick at least two games.

The Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act (Bill C-218, S.C. 2021, c. 20) changed that sentence. It received Royal Assent on June 29, 2021. Its section 2 rewrote paragraph 207(4)(b) so that only bookmaking and betting on horse races stays outside the provincial lottery-scheme power. An order in council (SI/2021-56) fixed the in-force date as August 27, 2021.

The Department of Justice announcement at the time stated that each province and territory decides how single-event betting is offered in its jurisdiction, online or in person, and that horse racing stays under the federal Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency. It also quoted Canadian Gaming Association estimates of about C$10 billion a year bet through organized crime and about C$4 billion a year with offshore sites before the change.

Province by province

Provinces either run sports betting themselves or, in two cases, register private operators.

A few specifics from the operators' own pages:

• PlayNow Sports lists hockey, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf and novelty markets, has a live betting section, and shows a 19+ mark. B.C.'s government describes PlayNow.com as the only legal online gambling site in the province.
• Mise-o-jeu shows decimal odds, allows single bets ("a selection with only one prediction") and multi-selection bets, and states that Loto-Quebec may modify odds at its discretion.
• Sport Select sells Pro-Line, point spread, over/under, props, futures and pools at retailers, with wagers from C$2 to C$100 and a C$250,000 prize limit.

Alberta's regulated market was built by the iGaming Alberta Act, which made AGLC the regulator, created the Alberta iGaming Corporation and set the online betting age at 18. Operators there must offer deposit and time limits and connect to the province's self-exclusion platform.

Where offshore sportsbooks fit

Outside Ontario and Alberta, sportsbooks licensed by authorities such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority or Curacao also accept Canadian customers. They are not run or licensed by a province. Two practical points follow:

• Provincial protections stop at the provincial site. B.C.'s Game Break or Loto-Quebec's online self-exclusion covers the provincial platform, not an offshore book. You rely on that book's own deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion.
• Disputes go to the licensing authority, not a Canadian regulator. Check which licence a book holds and who the operator is before you deposit.

BigBadBonus.com covers offshore books for players outside Ontario and Alberta. Our betting reviews state each book's licence as the operator publishes it, for example bet365 under the Malta Gaming Authority and Sports Interaction on the Kahnawake list. We do not describe any of them as provincially authorised, because they are not.

What you can bet on now

Since 2021 the law treats a single NHL game the same way it treats a parlay: both are allowed for provincially run or licensed sportsbooks. Market types are the same everywhere you look:

• Moneyline, point spread and totals, covered in moneyline, spread and totals
• Parlays and same-game parlays, covered in parlays explained
• Props, futures and live (in-play) markets, covered in live betting and cash out

Horse racing is the exception. It is regulated federally and handled through pari-mutuel pools, not provincial sportsbooks.

Ages and identity checks

Every legitimate sportsbook verifies age and identity before you withdraw, and most before you deposit. Use your own province's age as the floor: 19 in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces; 18 in Quebec and Manitoba; 18 for online play in Alberta. Offshore books apply their own minimum, which may differ; the stricter number is the one to follow. Our KYC guide explains the documents books ask for.

Tax on betting wins

For recreational bettors, the Canada Revenue Agency treats gambling winnings as windfalls, not income, so they are generally not taxable; interest earned on winnings is. Betting run as a business can be different. The detail is in our gambling winnings tax guide.

Advertising rules

Ontario's regulator banned active and retired athletes from online gambling advertising, except in responsible-gambling messages, from February 28, 2024. Other provinces have no equivalent private-operator market to regulate. A federal Senate bill on a national framework for betting ads (S-211) has been debated; its status in the House of Commons was not confirmed on Parliament's site at the time of writing.

Responsible betting

The legal question is the easy one. The harder one is keeping betting a paid-for pastime. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction's Lower-Risk Gambling Guidelines suggest gambling no more than 1% of household income a month, on no more than four days a month, and on no more than two types of games. Our bankroll management guide puts numbers on that, and responsible gambling lists the free helpline for your province, including Gambling Support BC (1-888-795-6111) and Quebec's Jeu : aide et reference (1-800-461-0140).

Summary

• Single-event sports betting is permitted through provincial operators and, in Ontario and Alberta, registered private operators, since August 27, 2021.
• The change came from Bill C-218, which rewrote Criminal Code paragraph 207(4)(b); horse racing stays federal.
• Each province chooses its product and its age: 19 in most, 18 in Quebec, Manitoba and online in Alberta.
• Offshore books are licensed abroad and sit outside provincial protections.

For the wider casino side of the same law, see our online gambling law guide. For the markets themselves, start with how to read odds and the Canadian betting hub.