OTTAWA - Betting on single games of football, hockey and other sports is about to become legal in Canada.

The Senate has approved Bill C-218, a private member's bill that amends Criminal Code provisions around gambling on single sports games - currently illegal except for horse racing - in a bid to win back customers from offshore sites, U.S. casinos and illegal bookmakers.

The upper chamber approved the bill Tuesday by a vote of 57-20. It now awaits royal assent to become law.

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh's bill garnered renewed enthusiasm from legislators in all four main parties, and marks the third time a would-be law with the same goal has blazed a trail through Parliament - but never this far.

Similar legislation zipped through the House of Commons with all-party support nearly a decade ago but foundered in the Senate and died when an election was called in 2015.

A second attempt by New Democrat MP Brian Masse also failed after the then-Liberal majority voted down his private member's bill in concert with Conservatives in 2016.