If you bet that single-event sport betting would be legal across Canada by summer, you lost.
The filibuster over the omnibus Bill C-38 budget package backed everything up, which means Bill C-290, the Act to Amend the Criminal Code, must spend summer in the Senate.
Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin’s private member’s bill has the backing of the Conservatives. Comartin wants Ontario casinos to keep local gamblers home instead of crossing into Michigan.
The legalization would also benefit provincial lottery corporations, giving them another way to battle the illegal online casinos that locate servers on a Mohawk Indian reserve near Montreal or in the Caribbean. Right now, entities like the BC Lottery Corp. can only offer punters a minimum of two bets.
The federal government has not moved to shut down the Kahnawake online gambling operations for fear of a costly legal battle and stoking another Oka incident.
C-290 passed three readings in the House of Commons and two in the red chamber before referral to the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.
Expect it to be passed when the House resumes sitting in the fall. Whether there will be betting on National Hockey League games then depends on the NHL Players’ Association and NHL agreeing on a new collective bargaining agreement.
That’s easier said than done, especially when the NHLPA is led by former Major League Baseball Players’ Association boss Donald Fehr.
Game plan
Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez returned home to Hastings Racecourse on July 2. He’ll be back in August and will be immortalized in bobble-head form.
But there is still no word on the future of the “racino.” Operator Great Canadian Gaming Corp.’s lease with city hall expires in November.
The company already wrote off $50 million of investments in the facility and has balked at building a parkade or renovating the barns. Horseracing, said CEO Rod Baker in March, is a “sunsetting” industry.
Even though the city plays an integral role as landlord, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson repeatedly pointed to Victoria when quizzed about the track by Dave Pratt on CKNW on June 21.
“It’s really up to the province what happens at the track. It’s going to be up to the province; they’re looking at those possibilities,” Robertson said.
“The PNE and Hastings Park there, we’re obviously going to be very keenly watching what the decision is around the future of the track.
“Their business case has to work with it, they rely significantly on the province, in terms of the casino operations and the horse racing.
“ It’s up to the province to really make sure they have the ability to operate successfully.
“I’d be really sad to see it go, my Dad used to take me to the track when I was younger. It’s an important part of our city, but they’ve gotta be able to make a go of it financially. ... at a certain point it’s gotta to be up to the province.”
Rich Coleman is both the liquor and gambling minister and is an associate of Patrick Kinsella, the controversial BC Liberal lobbyist and horseracing stable partner of Pacific Customs Brokers’ owner Glen Todd. Coleman also holds the key to provincial housing funds that Robertson so desperately needs to fulfil his promise to end homelessness in the city.
Pratt also grilled Gregor on bike lanes (for which the mayor gladly took the blame) and the Stanley Cup riot (for which he denied all blame). •
