Single sports betting is coming to Canada.
After a nearly 10 year fight, Bill C-218, was passed in the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 57 to 20 with five abstentions and now awaits royal assent for it to become law.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse is hoping that part of the process won't take too long, adding "That could be anywhere from an hour to maybe a week, it just depends on the Prime Minister, sometimes it again, can be right away and sometimes it can take a week but I don't think it will be a problem."
According to Masse, each province will now be able to come up with its own rules and regulations.
"The Province of Ontario has already been working on this so they might just use regulation to bring in some new product for it and it could happen very soon," he says "They've been expecting this and we've had some discussions to make sure my provincial colleagues in the NDP are prepared as well to help if this needs some sort of work in the provincial house."
When it comes to Jobs, Masse says it could start with construction employment if Caesars wants to create a new portion of the venue.
"I know Niagara Falls is doing that and they're spending millions of dollars in construction to build their sports venue up and then on top of that you'll have the operators," says Masse. "There have been studies in the past that show 200-300 jobs with direct connection to the casino itself and hopefully there will be some additional spin-off jobs from that."
In a statement released on Twitter, Dave Cassidy, President of Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at Caesars said "Single Sports Betting legislation was always about one thing for us at local 444, JOBS!... today was a good victory."
Prior to making it to the Senate, the bill had unanimously passed in the House of Commons Justice Committee in March.
Former Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin first introduced the single sports betting private members bill in 2011, which was taken on by Masse after Comartin became deputy speaker.