History of Lotteries and Horse Racing in Canada

Long before Canada had a single legal casino, two forms of gambling were already running in the open: betting on horse races and buying lottery tickets. They were the exceptions the law carved out while almost everything else stayed banned — racetrack wagering from 1910, and government lotteries from 1969. This article traces how those two activities became legal, how they actually worked, and how they grew into the regulated industry Canadians know today.

Why horse racing and lotteries came first

Horse racing and lotteries were legalized first because lawmakers saw them as controllable exceptions rather than open invitations to gamble. When Canada’s first Criminal Code took effect in 1892, it treated gambling as a social evil and prohibited most forms of it. Over the following decades, Parliament chipped away at that ban with narrow carve-outs — each tied to a respectable-looking purpose such as sport, charity or public fundraising — rather than repealing the prohibition outright.

That gradual, exception-by-exception approach is the backbone of the history of gambling in Canada. Racetrack betting fit the “gentleman’s sport” image of the day, and lotteries were eventually sold to the public as a way to fund hospitals, stadiums and the arts. Both arrived long before the first commercial casinos opened in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Horse racing: Canada’s oldest legal wager

Horse racing is the oldest legally sanctioned betting activity in Canada and predates every other regulated form. Organized Thoroughbred racing existed in British North America well before Confederation, and by the time the Criminal Code was written, racetracks were an established part of social and sporting life. That head start is why racing, not the casino, was the first gambling activity the state was willing to formally permit.

The Queen’s Plate and the roots of Canadian racing

The Queen’s Plate, first run on 27 June 1860, is the oldest continuously run Thoroughbred stakes race in North America. It was staged at the Carleton Race Course in Toronto after Sir Casimir Gzowski of the Toronto Turf Club obtained the backing of Queen Victoria, who donated a prize of 50 guineas. The inaugural winner was a horse named Don Juan.

The race has run every year since, even through both World Wars, and later settled at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. It was renamed the King’s Plate in 2022 following the accession of King Charles III, having previously switched between “Queen’s” and “King’s” with the reigning monarch. Its unbroken history makes it a useful anchor for the whole story of Canadian racing.

What is pari-mutuel betting and how does it work?

Pari-mutuel betting is a system in which all wagers on a race go into a shared pool, the operator takes a fixed cut, and the remaining money is divided among the winning bettors. The name comes from the French pari mutuel, meaning “mutual stake” — you are effectively betting against the other bettors, not against the house.

The system was devised by French entrepreneur Joseph Oller (sometimes miscited as “Pierre” Oller) in the 1860s. Its key feature is that the odds are not set in advance: they shift as money flows into the pool and are only final once betting closes. The machine that tallies all those bets and calculates payouts is called a totalisator, or “tote”. In Canada, deductions taken from the pool before winners are paid include the racetrack’s share and federal and provincial levies.

The 1910 amendment: the “gentleman’s sport” exception

A 1910 amendment to the Criminal Code created the racetrack exception that made pari-mutuel wagering legal in Canada. The change allowed on-track betting at meetings run by incorporated racing associations, within strict limits on how many race days each track could hold per year. The same wave of amendments also tolerated occasional games of chance where the proceeds went to charitable or religious purposes.

For roughly the next six decades, pari-mutuel racing and small-scale charitable gaming were the only legal gambling anywhere in the country. Racing’s association with sport and respectability — the “gentleman’s sport” framing — is a large part of why it was permitted while casinos and commercial lotteries remained illegal. Some provincial inquiry documents date the formal pari-mutuel system slightly later, but 1910 is the amendment most historians point to as the turning point.

How horse racing is regulated today

Pari-mutuel betting on horse racing remains the one form of gambling still overseen at the federal level. The Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA), a special operating agency within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, regulates and supervises race betting under section 204 of the Criminal Code. Its duties include licensing racetracks and betting theatres, auditing wagering, and running an equine drug-control program to keep racing fair.

This federal role is an exception to the general rule that the provinces run gambling — a split explained in more detail in our guide to Canada’s gambling laws. Bets can now be placed at the track, at teletheatres or online, with off-track wagers merged into the same pool as on-track bets.

Charitable gambling: bingo, raffles and fairs

Between horse racing and the modern lottery came a middle layer of legal gambling: charitable bingo, raffles and games at fairs. Around 1900, the Criminal Code was amended to permit small raffles and games of chance when they were run by charitable or religious organizations, typically at bazaars. In 1925, a further exemption allowed certain games at agricultural fairs and exhibitions — the origin of the midway “wheel of fortune”.

These exemptions were deliberately narrow and low-stakes, aimed at letting churches, service clubs and fairs raise money without opening the door to commercial gambling. In practice, though, charitable bingos and raffles often operated in a legal grey zone, and the lack of clear rules became one of the pressures that eventually pushed Parliament toward broader reform in 1969.

The 1969 turning point: lotteries become legal

The 1969 amendments to the Criminal Code were the single most important change in Canadian lottery history, opening the door to legal government lotteries for the first time. The reform permitted the federal government and the provinces to conduct lottery schemes, and gave the provinces authority to license charitable and religious groups, agricultural fairs and others to run smaller games. This is the moment “canadian lottery history” as most people understand it really begins.

Why did Canada legalize lotteries in 1969?

Canada legalized lotteries in 1969 to replace an unworkable patchwork of exemptions with a clear, regulated system that governments could profit from. Police had long complained that the old charitable-gaming rules were vague and hard to enforce, while public appetite for lotteries plainly exceeded what the law allowed. Framing lotteries as a tool to fund public projects — rather than private profit — made the change politically acceptable.

The 1976 Montreal Olympics and Loto-Canada

The desire to pay for the 1976 Montreal Olympics drove the first federal lottery. In 1973, legislation authorized an Olympic lottery to help cover the Games’ enormous costs, and the federal Crown corporation Loto-Canada was created in 1976 to raise money toward Quebec’s Olympic deficit. The provinces strongly objected, because they regarded lotteries as their own exclusive field — a dispute that would take nearly a decade to settle.

The 1985 federal-provincial deal

In 1985, the federal government agreed to withdraw from lotteries entirely and leave the field to the provinces. In exchange, the provinces made annual payments to Ottawa, and the Criminal Code was amended to confirm that conducting and managing lottery schemes was a provincial responsibility. That settlement is why, to this day, every legal lottery, casino and (until recent changes) most betting in Canada is run or licensed by a province — horse racing being the federal exception noted above.

The rise of Canada’s lottery corporations

Once lotteries were legal, the provinces quickly built Crown corporations to run them, and these bodies still operate Canada’s lotteries today. Rather than each province acting entirely alone, several grouped into regional organizations to share the cost of printing tickets, running draws and marketing games. The result is a small number of regional lottery corporations plus a national coordinating body.

Loto-Québec and the first modern draws

Loto-Québec, created by Quebec legislation in 1969, was among the first provincial lottery bodies and held its first draw in 1970. Manitoba launched a provincial lottery around the same time, and other provinces followed within a few years. These early government draws used pre-printed numbers on tickets rather than letting players choose their own.

Over the 1970s, the provinces organized into the regional corporations still in place today: the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (1974) for the Prairies and the territories, the Ontario Lottery Corporation (1975, now the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation), the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (1976) for the four Atlantic provinces, Loto-Québec in Quebec, and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (1985) after B.C. left the western consortium.

Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max and national games

Lotto 6/49, launched on 12 June 1982, was the first nationwide Canadian game to let players pick their own numbers, and it reshaped the industry. It is run through the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, formed in 1976 so the provincial bodies could offer shared national draws while keeping revenue in each province. Lotto 6/49 quickly displaced the older pre-printed-number games such as the Olympic Lottery and Loto-Canada.

Lotto Max followed on 19 September 2009, replacing Lotto Super 7 with larger jackpots and, from 2019, two draws a week. Between them, Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max remain the two best-known national lottery games, with each participating province marketing them locally and returning proceeds to public funds. Lottery and casino gaming are now major sources of provincial revenue across land-based casinos across Canada and beyond.

Common misconceptions about lottery and racing history

The history of Canadian lotteries and racing is often oversimplified, so a few points are worth correcting directly.

• “Lotteries were legalized in 1974 for the Olympics.” The enabling change came in 1969; the Olympic lottery and Loto-Canada built on it, and the federal government only withdrew from lotteries in 1985.
• “Pari-mutuel betting is run by casinos or the provinces.” Horse-race betting is regulated federally by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency, which makes it unusual among Canadian gambling forms.
• “The house sets the odds in horse racing.” In pari-mutuel betting the payout depends on how other people bet, not on fixed house odds, so the final returns are only known once betting closes.
• “Buying more lottery tickets or picking ‘lucky’ numbers improves your real chances.” Each combination has the same fixed probability; strategies and systems do not change the underlying odds.
• “Canada always banned gambling until casinos arrived.” Racetrack betting and charitable games were legal for decades before the first casino, and lotteries for nearly 20 years before it.

How lotteries and racing fit into Canadian gambling today

Together, horse racing and lotteries laid the legal and institutional groundwork for everything that came after. Racing established that the state would tolerate regulated betting; the 1969 lottery reform established that governments themselves could run gambling for public benefit; and the 1985 settlement handed the provinces the authority they still use to license casinos, sports betting and online gaming. The Crown lottery corporations built in the 1970s and 1980s remain the operators behind today’s draws.

For readers who want the wider picture, these two forms are best understood as the opening chapters of a longer story that continues through the arrival of casinos, charitable and First Nations gaming, and legal single-event sports betting. If you are new to how the games themselves work and the odds behind them, our explainer on how casino games work is a useful companion.

Responsible gambling note

This article is a historical and informational overview and is not gambling advice or encouragement. Lotteries and pari-mutuel betting are games of chance: the odds are fixed against the player over time, and no system, number choice or betting pattern changes that. Gambling in Canada is restricted to adults — 19+ in most provinces, 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. If gambling is causing you or someone you know harm, free, confidential help is available through Canada’s responsible gambling resources.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When was horse race betting legalized in Canada?

Pari-mutuel betting on horse racing became legal through a 1910 amendment to the Criminal Code, which allowed on-track wagering at meetings run by incorporated racing associations. It was effectively the only widely available legal gambling, alongside small charitable games, for about the next 60 years.

When did lotteries become legal in Canada?

Government lotteries were legalized by amendments to the Criminal Code in 1969, which allowed the federal and provincial governments to conduct lottery schemes. The provinces created lottery corporations soon after, and in 1985 the federal government withdrew from lotteries and left them to the provinces.

What is pari-mutuel betting?

Pari-mutuel betting pools all wagers on a race together, deducts the operator’s cut and taxes, and divides the rest among the winning bettors. Because you bet against the other players rather than a bookmaker, the odds and payouts are only finalized once betting closes.

What was the first national lottery game you could pick numbers for?

Lotto 6/49, launched on 12 June 1982, was the first nationwide Canadian lottery that let players choose their own numbers. It replaced the older style of games that used pre-printed numbers, such as the Olympic Lottery and Loto-Canada, and is still run through the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation.

Who regulates horse racing and lotteries in Canada today?

Horse-race betting is regulated federally by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency under the Criminal Code, which is unusual. Lotteries, by contrast, are run by provincial Crown corporations such as Loto-Québec, OLG, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, the Western Canada Lottery Corporation and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.