Canada May Pass Single Sports Betting Bill This Week: Leagues Not Happy

Canada is looking to pass a bill that would allow for betting on single sports events this week.  But it now appears a significant obstacle is standing in the way. 

While the House of Commons approved the bill unanimously, the professional sports industry is pressuring the Senate to defeat the measure. 

Currently, it’s only legal to bet on multiple matches at once, and only through Internet sites and the legal lottery game Proline.

Windsor West MP Brian Masse believes that making single sports betting legal in Canada would take the activity out of the hands of organized criminal operatives.

“The problem is, is that the money that goes to that is going to organized crime and other consortiums that is not used accordingly,” said Masse, who has a casino in his riding.

Supporters of Bill C-290 say it could boost local businesses as well. 

Conservative Senator Linda Frum disagrees and is pushing to have the measure defeated. 

“What this bill will do is to add a type of gambling to our menu of gambling that has a particular pernicious aspect to it and that is the danger it poses to the integrity of sport,” she said on CTV’s Question Period Sunday.

Both the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball oppose the bill.  They were among a handful of plaintiffs to file suit against the state of New Jersey to prevent legalized sports betting in one of the USA’s most populous regions. 

“Such wagering poses perhaps the greatest threat to the integrity of our games,” the NHL said in a statement on the Canadian bill last week.

“We do not want any government to teach children to gamble on their heroes,” said Paul Beeston, president of the Toronto Blue Jays and former Major League Baseball president.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com