Is opposition mounting against single-game sports betting in Canada?

Up in the Great White North, MP Joe Comartin’s proposed bill to legalise single-game betting in Canada appears to have encountered its first real potential opposition from Major League Baseball officials.

Thus far private members Bill C-290 has enjoyed a remarkably easy if rather prolonged run through the parliamentary gauntlet of committees and readings. It passed out of the House of Commons early this year and headed to the Senate, completing its second reading there mid-year encouraging hopes that it would soon clear a third reading and be passed.

However, consideration of the bill by the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs this week is taking some time, and on the committee’s third round of discussions on its implications the opposition appeared in the form of senior Major League Baseball officials Paul Beeston and general counsel Thomas Ostertag.

Reporting on the appearance, the Globe and Mail newspaper noted that the duo voiced the usual fears that single game wagering could introduce the perils of sport corruption, opening sports up to public perceptions of a lack of integrity. They also suggested that the old bogeyman of an increase in problem gambling could result.

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