The former MP who spent more than a decade pushing to legalize single-event sports betting says he doesn’t regret it — but says its implementation is in some ways “sad” and “deplorable.”

He also says more regulation is required to curb the volume and methods of gambling advertising in Canada.

Former NDP MP Brian Masse introduced a private member’s bill to lift the prohibition in 2019, and one year later, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh re-introduced Masse’s bill.

But Masse says, five years later, legalized sports betting hasn’t been implemented in the way he had envisioned.