FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                
February 25, 2020
 

MASSE & CASSIDY SUPPORT TRANSFER OF BILL TO LEGALIZE SPORTS BETTING TO CONSERVATIVE MP  
Third legislative attempt is a bipartisan effort from the start

(OTTAWA)- Today, Brian Masse M.P. (Windsor West), NDP Innovation, Science, Economic Development and Auto Critic and Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy participated in a press conference on parliament hill to support the transfer his private members bill (PMB) to legalize single event sports betting (SESB) to Conservative M.P. Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), a former television sports journalist, who drew the seventh slot to introduce a PMB, guaranteeing a vote this year.

“With Michigan Casinos weeks away from the March Madness college basketball championships windfall from SESB we can’t afford to not take advantage of any opportunity to get this legalized and protect our jobs while growing the gaming sector in Windsor and across the country,” Cassidy said.

The gaming sector is the largest component of the entertainment industry in Canada accounting for over 250 000 jobs across Canada. In 2018 the United States Supreme court struck down the federal law preventing States from allowing SESB. Since that time 19 states have legalized SESB including New York State and Michigan allows for sports betting in physical a casino which directly threatens the market for Canadian gaming facilities in Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario. Mobile sport betting, which is done though an app on phones, is already available in New Jersey and represents approximately 70 percent of all sports betting in that market. This will be available next year in Michigan after a full year of in-person gaming in Michigan-based Casinos. It is estimated that the illegal SESB market in Canada is over $10 billion which funds organized crime.

“I want to thank MP Kevin Waugh for taking on this bill and using his precious early spot on the PMB order to make this a bipartisan effort to legalize single event sports betting in Canada. This is the third legislative attempt to get a bill passed. The two previous times it started as just a NDP bill and we built cross party support over time but it never got over the goal line either by being killed by the unelected Senate or not making it out of the House for partisan reasons,” Masse stated. “Now we have bipartisan support from the start to deal with the real challenge to our sector from United States which has legalized sport gaming in 19 states and climbing,” Masse said.

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For more information contact:

For Brian Masse:  Melanie Namespetra 613-996-1541 or [email protected]

For Dave Cassidy: Jeremy Glajch 226-787-8359 or [email protected]