With apologies to the late, great Charles Dickens, these are the busiest of times for Paul Burns.

The president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association is in Malta this week for the return of SiGMA Europe’s World Gaming Festival after a year’s hiatus. Last month, Burns was at the return of the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Last week, he was a panelist at a virtual technology and gaming conference. And in two weeks, the SBC Summit North America in New York.

Regardless of the forum or platform on which Burns appears right now, there’s one question that’s a sure bet: When will Ontario be open for online sportsbook operators and casinos to offer legal, single-event sports betting?

“I have no real timelines into when in (the first quarter of 2022) it will be,” Burns said Wednesday via Zoom call after a day of wall-to-wall meetings at the festival in Malta — a global sports betting and gaming mecca hub thanks to the government’s rigorous efforts to license the industry and attract businesses to put down roots in a country with a little more than 500,000 residents.