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By JOE WARMINGTON - Toronto Sun
You bet you had a good time at the Argo home opener last night.
The beer was cold, the hotdogs were hot, the Hamilton Tiger Cats were tough and the Rogers Centre was 30,822 strong for another season of Argos football.
The only thing missing was the ability to lay down a legal wager on the game.
But Sunday shopping and abortions were illegal once, too. And like those things, despite being outlawed, gambling still goes on. Law or no law.
So are times about to change in Ontario?
Fans at the game were buzzing at the proposed concept of allowing legal sports wagering. "Didn't the NFL become the most famous league in the world because of betting?" asked fan Howard Kideckel, who with pals David Caine and Alan Reisler were -- ironically -- in the Casino Rama SkyBox.
"It would certainly get more people interested in the games," he said.
Meanwhile, all anybody who thinks sports betting is not alive and well and living in Ontario needs to do is look down on the football field between the 40 and 50 yard line at the Rogers Centre to see how off they are.
Right there, not far from the on-field advertisement from Wendy's, Rogers, Rona, Pizza Pizza, CAA, President's Choice and the CAW, it sits -- bowmans.net.
In the south end zone at last night's raucous home opener, there were two banners that also said bowmans.net -- one with a subhead that said "Sportsbook Zone" and the other that said "Play for Free. Win Cash."
Smart advertising. And an appropriate place to do it, too -- where the sports fans are.
If you don't know what Bowmans is, the government certainly does. It's who it competes with. Well, hardly.
But it's the highly popular offshore service that can take any wager on any game anywhere and load you up for some pretty good poker playing and other games, too. That they are a sponsor on a professional sports field gives a pretty good indication of just how mainstream this whole sports betting industry is. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
The moral of the story? Time to grow up, properly legalize sports betting in Canada and properly run it.
And perhaps Ontario and the federal government is getting ready to do just that, with media reports indicating there is more than discussion ongoing about introducing sports books into Ontario's casinos.
Think bigger. It's time for Toronto to get a piece of this gambling action and it's time for Toronto to take the lead. For too long have we been sending people to Rama, Niagara or even Woodbine.
The solution? The biggest and best sports book in the world. The location?
Well, at Maple Leaf Gardens, of course.
"I love it," says George Bigliardi, who has run a nearby steakhouse. "The Gardens has been sitting there vacant for 10 years and how has that paid off for us? This would be a perfect spot because such a thing would bring midtown alive once again."
A renovated Gardens, complete with a first-class world-wide sports book, casino and hotel would be better than leaving it to rot away, sadly losing its prestige as the national icon that it is.
It would bring more people down there than a grocery store that Loblaws never seems to get around to build -- and no $57 cab ride to Woodbine.
But first things first. The legalization of sports betting would have to happen first.
Not Ontario Lottery's Pro-Line and its poor payoff system and rules that you must bet on three games at once, making it almost impossible to win longshots. Straight sports wagering, where you can bet on an individual game and on players and plays inside the game, too.
"You are barking up the wrong tree with the Gardens idea," Bob McCown of The FAN 590 said last night.
FLOWING OFFSHORE
But the whole idea of making sports betting legal he not only agrees with but has been a proponent of for more than 15 years. "You could have the national debt paid off in two years," he laughed. "This is a billion-dollar business."
Not could be. Is. Bowmans understands that. The money is already flowing -- offshore.
McCown made a presentation to the Mills Commission in the early 1990s that would see responsible sports betting permitted to registered players that would create jobs and raise money for amateur sports and for all sorts of other needs. He also worked with Toronto real-estate legend Eddie Cogan and Vegas legend Steve Wynn on the idea of bringing a Vegas-style casino to the CNE grounds but was shut down by municipal dynamiters.
He's not holding his breath on this happening this time.
But, he said, if done right, if it's not completely run by government, he's in favour of giving it a shot, understanding that there are billions of dollars being siphoned out of the economy, some to illegal operators.
"But I think it should be in the format of having special sports bars that are licensed for sports betting," he said. "I think for this to work it shouldn't be in a big place like the Gardens idea but at every corner like McDonald's."
Something has to happen to bring our city alive again. Will we one day have a sports book? Want to bet on it?
You bet you had a good time at the Argo home opener last night.
The beer was cold, the hotdogs were hot, the Hamilton Tiger Cats were tough and the Rogers Centre was 30,822 strong for another season of Argos football.
The only thing missing was the ability to lay down a legal wager on the game.
But Sunday shopping and abortions were illegal once, too. And like those things, despite being outlawed, gambling still goes on. Law or no law.
So are times about to change in Ontario?
Fans at the game were buzzing at the proposed concept of allowing legal sports wagering. "Didn't the NFL become the most famous league in the world because of betting?" asked fan Howard Kideckel, who with pals David Caine and Alan Reisler were -- ironically -- in the Casino Rama SkyBox.
"It would certainly get more people interested in the games," he said.
Meanwhile, all anybody who thinks sports betting is not alive and well and living in Ontario needs to do is look down on the football field between the 40 and 50 yard line at the Rogers Centre to see how off they are.
Right there, not far from the on-field advertisement from Wendy's, Rogers, Rona, Pizza Pizza, CAA, President's Choice and the CAW, it sits -- bowmans.net.
In the south end zone at last night's raucous home opener, there were two banners that also said bowmans.net -- one with a subhead that said "Sportsbook Zone" and the other that said "Play for Free. Win Cash."
Smart advertising. And an appropriate place to do it, too -- where the sports fans are.
If you don't know what Bowmans is, the government certainly does. It's who it competes with. Well, hardly.
But it's the highly popular offshore service that can take any wager on any game anywhere and load you up for some pretty good poker playing and other games, too. That they are a sponsor on a professional sports field gives a pretty good indication of just how mainstream this whole sports betting industry is. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
The moral of the story? Time to grow up, properly legalize sports betting in Canada and properly run it.
And perhaps Ontario and the federal government is getting ready to do just that, with media reports indicating there is more than discussion ongoing about introducing sports books into Ontario's casinos.
Think bigger. It's time for Toronto to get a piece of this gambling action and it's time for Toronto to take the lead. For too long have we been sending people to Rama, Niagara or even Woodbine.
The solution? The biggest and best sports book in the world. The location?
Well, at Maple Leaf Gardens, of course.
"I love it," says George Bigliardi, who has run a nearby steakhouse. "The Gardens has been sitting there vacant for 10 years and how has that paid off for us? This would be a perfect spot because such a thing would bring midtown alive once again."
A renovated Gardens, complete with a first-class world-wide sports book, casino and hotel would be better than leaving it to rot away, sadly losing its prestige as the national icon that it is.
It would bring more people down there than a grocery store that Loblaws never seems to get around to build -- and no $57 cab ride to Woodbine.
But first things first. The legalization of sports betting would have to happen first.
Not Ontario Lottery's Pro-Line and its poor payoff system and rules that you must bet on three games at once, making it almost impossible to win longshots. Straight sports wagering, where you can bet on an individual game and on players and plays inside the game, too.
"You are barking up the wrong tree with the Gardens idea," Bob McCown of The FAN 590 said last night.
FLOWING OFFSHORE
But the whole idea of making sports betting legal he not only agrees with but has been a proponent of for more than 15 years. "You could have the national debt paid off in two years," he laughed. "This is a billion-dollar business."
Not could be. Is. Bowmans understands that. The money is already flowing -- offshore.
McCown made a presentation to the Mills Commission in the early 1990s that would see responsible sports betting permitted to registered players that would create jobs and raise money for amateur sports and for all sorts of other needs. He also worked with Toronto real-estate legend Eddie Cogan and Vegas legend Steve Wynn on the idea of bringing a Vegas-style casino to the CNE grounds but was shut down by municipal dynamiters.
He's not holding his breath on this happening this time.
But, he said, if done right, if it's not completely run by government, he's in favour of giving it a shot, understanding that there are billions of dollars being siphoned out of the economy, some to illegal operators.
"But I think it should be in the format of having special sports bars that are licensed for sports betting," he said. "I think for this to work it shouldn't be in a big place like the Gardens idea but at every corner like McDonald's."
Something has to happen to bring our city alive again. Will we one day have a sports book? Want to bet on it?