Single-event sports betting draws closer in Canada
Bill C-290 is set for third and final reading in the Senate " National Hockey League continue to oppose law.
Legislation which would allow Canadian operators to accept bets on single sports events is set for a final vote in the Senate after passing out of a Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee hearing yesterday.
Under current law, bettors can only wager on multiple outcomes, a provision designed to deter match fixing and corruption in the country’s professional sports leagues.
Bill C-290 is now set for a final hearing in the Senate “ the date of which is yet to be confirmed “ after which it would become law if given the green light. Its supporters argue it will attract a substantial new revenue stream as well as create new jobs in the provinces.
However the regulation has met stiff opposition from the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. In a written submission, the NHL yesterday urged the Senate to scrap the law, claiming it would damage the sport’s integrity.
“We firmly believe that legalised sports betting threatens to compromise that integrity, and that the single-game betting scheme that Bill C-290 seeks to decriminalise poses a particularised and unique threat in that regard,” the league wrote.
In yesterday’s committee hearing, the bill attracted support from all three political parties, however it will face further scrutiny in the Senate.
Conservative Senator Linda Frum told the Senate Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday: “Given the nature of this bill and the way it got to us, I know there is great interest in the Senate chamber in this and it will be debated and discussed there.”
“I would like it noted that I am very much in favour of seeing the bill go back to the chamber so that all of our colleagues have the opportunity to comment and debate on it.”