The union that represents workers at Caesars Windsor is moving forward on an almost decade-old effort to make single-event sports betting legal in Canada.
Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy and National President Jerry Dias met with federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Maple Leafs Entertainment Chair Larry Tenenbaum in Toronto Monday to talk about ways to revive the legislation that could put millions of dollars into government coffers and create up to 150 new jobs at Caesars Windsor alone.
Retiring Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin September 7, 2015. (Photo by Adelle Loiselle)
Former Windsor-Tecumseh MP, Joe Comartin first introduced a bill in 2011 to allow Canadians to bet on just one sporting event, instead of multiple sports. It passed in the House of Commons but failed to advance through the Senate. Windsor West MP Brian Masse took up the fight after Comartin retired from politics. He tried to bring it forward again in 2016, but at the time the Liberal government was not accepting private members' bills.
Last November, Cassidy signalled the union was going to take up the cause when he told reporters he had asked the Foreign Affairs Minister to bring it up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Now, Cassidy said the union is going to Parliament Hill.
"We're lining up another lobby the week of March 4 in Ottawa, and we're going to lobby cabinet," he said. "We need this to come to light."
The effort faces another major challenge. The federal Liberal government is facing an election this fall, and if a bill does not pass by the time the House of Commons ends sitting for the election campaign, it will again die.
Cassidy is not letting that discourage him. He told BlackburnNews.com the issue is too important to abandon since Michigan and New York have now legalized single-event sports betting.
"Not a nail in the coffin. I don't want to use that term, but we're playing catch-up again," he said referring to the delay legalizing craps after it was introduced in American casinos.
Unifor has said it would create 150 new jobs at Caesars Windsor alone. While it is difficult to accurately predict how much money it would put in government coffers, some estimates say organized crime makes between $10- to $40-million from single-event sports betting.
"That's huge dollars," said Cassidy. "I mean, they could turn this around in no time. It's truly one change in a paragraph in the Criminal Code."