|
TORONTO — Ontario's push to allow Las Vegas-style sports gambling in casinos in a bid to boost sagging revenues is an irresponsible move that could deepen a troubling trend of gambling addiction in the province, critics said Thursday. Ontario casinos do have some sports betting but it's limited to the government-run Pro-Line lottery in which gamblers select the outcomes of three or more contests on a “parlay” ticket. The province is urging Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code to allow casino “sportsbooks” — a section of the facility where gamblers could make bets on individual games, government officials confirmed. Former Infrastructure Minister David Caplan — who was recently shuffled to the Health and Long-Term Care file — made the request last year in a letter to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, said Caplan's former spokeswoman Amy Tang. The Toronto Star has reported that Nicholson, who represents Niagara Falls, is receptive to the idea and the two levels of government are quietly co-operating, although no timeline has been set. Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory slammed the proposal as just another distraction concocted by the governing Liberals to draw attention away from the province's current economic troubles. But Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak said he's urged Nicholson and Smitherman to move quickly on the proposal. “I do believe that this would be helpful to our casinos, to bring patrons back,” said Hudak, who represents the riding of Niagara Falls-Glanbrook. Expanding gambling at a time when the government barely has a handle on its problem gamblers is an “incredibly irresponsible” move, said NDP critic Peter Kormos. “What this does illustrate is that it's the province who has the real gambling addiction, the real gambling dependency, because it's looking forward to those new revenues,” he said. This is cache, read story here
|
