I live in Ontario, Canada.

Section 204 (1) b of the Criminal Code clearly states that it is legal for two private citizens, whom are not engaged in the business of gambling, to place sporting bets with each other.

The question is, what recourse does someone have if they enter into a legal bet with another citizen, and that other citizen loses and refuses to pay?

*You can assume, for the sake of this question, that nothing is verbal, and all conversations about the bet being placed/acceptance of the bet are documented full through text.

Interesting question and i hope someone will answer, pretty sure this is wrong spot for thread but i dunno.

Im pretty sure you would just be **** outta luck. take the money beforehand for the bet.

and yea yea i know most people who do this just lock it in via text, but you have to trust that person. No trust no bet!

Mods can change for exposure. Im new here and thought "disputes" was somewhat relevant.

I was under the impression that legal sports betting in a Casino gives rise to contractual obligations on the part of the Casino to pay out the bet if it is a winner and there are no mitigating circumstances. In other words, they cant legally choose not to pay for no reason.

Surely, legal bets between private citizens should give rise to similar contractual duties, especially when said bets are properly documented and the intentions of the parties is crystal clear.



Also, the definition of fraud is: wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain

If citizen A solicits citizen B by text to make some bets, and the two lock in some bets, and citizen A doesnt pay when he loses, inst citizen A committing fraud?

Citizen A is wrongfully deceiving citizen B for citizen A's own personal financial gain; the deception being the notion that citizen B has a fair chance to win the legal bet.

4.4 Are gambling debts enforceable in your jurisdiction?

If the debt is incurred in a legally operated gambling facility, such debts are considered a form of consumer debt and are treated accordingly. However, if the gambling debt is incurred in the course of illegal or private gambling, provincial gaming laws prohibit the use of civil proceedings to collect such debts. As an example, section 47.1 of Ontario’s Gaming Control Act states that “no person may use civil proceedings to recover money owing to the person resulting from the [sic] participating in or betting on a lottery scheme .... unless the lottery scheme is authorized under subsection 207 (1) of the Code”.

https://iclg.com/practice-areas/gamb...lations/canada

Thanks for a great answer. I understand that on the face of it being a simple gambling debt, you cant sue to recover the winnings.

However, what I am particularly interested in is the Fraud angle.

Definition of fraud: wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.

Common Hypothetical:

Citizen A (CA) contacts Citizen B (CB) and solicits CB to place some legal private bets with him.

CB agrees to this solicitation and both parties place, and lock in bet(s) with each other. CA loses the bet(s) and refuses to pay CB.

CA is wrongfully deceiving CB for CA's own personal financial gain; the deception being the notion that CB will have a fair and honest chance of winning the contest and is not being freerolled.

CA may not make personal financial gain on every single freeroll, because he will lose sometimes, but over time, if he freerolls 100 people on legal bets, he will undoubtedly make money. As such, the intent of CA's deception is to make money long term.

You could also argue that the value CA achieves by "never losing" can be considered "personal gain"!

Anyways, I may be super far off with this because im NAL, but I just thought it was an interesting angle considering it is fully LEGAL to place private bets. I cant imagine that it is legal to fraudulently solicit citizens for legal bets with the intention of freerolling them if you lose.

Sounds like you should talk to AL.