National Hockey League Opposes Canadian Betting Bill -NHL Update
Canadian legislators are closing in on getting a bill passed that would allow betting on single game outcomes and make it legal to do so on any sporting event carried out with a Canadian franchise, whether it is in hockey, football, basketball or baseball.
The National Hockey League (NHL) has come out to oppose it in all, saying that it is against integrity of the game, which is the only reason it has been surviving despite tough opposition from other sporting leagues. They urged the Canadian senate not to
pass the bill at all costs, since it would lead to many people believing that match fixing goes on in the NHL, like many other sports around the world that have legalized betting involved.
"We firmly believe that legalized sports betting threatens to compromise that integrity, and that the single-game betting scheme that Bill C-290 seeks to decriminalize poses a particularized and unique threat in that regard," the league wrote, according
to cbc.ca.
"Such wagering poses perhaps the greatest threat to the integrity of our games, since it is far easier to engage in 'match fixing' in order to win single-game bets than it is in cases of parlay betting [as currently exists in Canada], where bets are determined
on the basis of multiple game outcomes."
The Toronto Blue Jays, Canada’s only Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, also voiced its opposition by saying that pressure would come from many angles as for bookies, winning the bet would be more important than winning a game depending on their situation.
They went on to add that it would have a devastating effect on all the players, who would also be pressurized to play at a certain point and not on another. Fans would not always be supporting their home team depending on who they are betting to win, causing
the game to lose out on its excitement, especially when big money will be involved.
It will be interesting to see what the Canadian legislators think about the sporting communities thoughts on their proposed bill and whether or not it will be passed or denied in the upcoming days.
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