opening game against the Brooklyn Nets in the First Round of the NBA

If Canada legalizes betting on single sports events, it could claw billions of dollars from the shady world of organized crime. Cash would be pumped into health care, education and other social programs. Authorities would be better equipped to sleuth out incidents of match-fixing by athletes. Yet making the vice more readily available would also come with a social cost. It may well create new problem gamblers, those whose habits spiral out of control and cost them their homes, their families, and their health. The boosted profile of gambling might represent a hard-to-resist temptation for pro athletes looking for one final big score. Those are the main arguments on either side of a polarizing issue that may come to a head in weeks. After several years of debate, Bill C-290, a private members bill that seeks to make legal single sport event gambling, is poised to go to a deciding vote in the senate as soon as January, the bills senate sponsor Bob Runciman said in an interview with TSN. If the bill passes, it would turn sports gambling in Canada on its head. As Canadian law now stands, bettors who want to place a legal wager on any pro or college game must also predict the winner of one or two other games. These so-called parlay bets arent popular with gamblers because it is more difficult to predict the outcome of multiple games. Some fans who want to place wagers on single games turn to illegal bookies, who often have ties to organized crime. Police last year raided a banquet hall in north Toronto to shut down an illegal sports book run by the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. In one case in Windsor, we watched as a guy who owed about $30,000 to a gang for sports debts had a van driven up to his home, said Sergeant Bill Sword, a detective with the Ontario Provincial Police who commands a joint-force organized crime enforcement bureau. They basically went into this guys house and took everything but a mattress. In Canada alone, an estimated $10 billion is bet through illegal booking operations by organized crime, according to the Canadian Gaming Association, and another $5 billion goes to offshore online sports books. Legal sports lottery wagering is worth about $500 million. A regulated system would allow you to monitor increased activity on any particular game so you can find out somethings wrong here, something smells, said Runciman, who represents Brockville, Ontario, one of the several cross-border Canadian cities close to casinos that might benefit from legalized sports betting. None of its been monitored to look for illegal activity, and the biggest downside in my view is that organized crime are the folks who are the benefactors of this, and it helps them support other illegal activities in our society. A recent case study estimated Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls could earn an annual gaming profit of as much as $12 million if sports gambling is legalized. Casinos in Windsor could generate an additional $24 million. The pending Canadian senate vote on legalized sports betting comes with major professional sports leagues at odds over the issue. The NBA said in November that it would invest in a fantasy sports betting website called FanDuel, which allows players to bet against one another. The NBAs commissioner Adam Silver has endorsed the repeal of a 1992 U.S. federal prohibition on sports betting. The NFL allows bets on the games it plays in London, where sports betting is allowed. The NFL has also approved players to sign endorsement deals with fantasy websites and the league runs season-long, pay-to-enter fantasy leagues that offer team apparel and memorabilia as prizes. The Canadian Soccer Association wants legalized sports betting, a move it and FIFA argue would help authorities to more easily catch match-fixing. My fear, says Earl Cochrane, an executive with the Canadian Soccer Association, is that if sport betting continues to operate in the shadows, continues to operate in place where we dont want it to operate in… young elite athletes get caught up into some sort of sport betting, get caught up in the wrong crowd, suddenly position themselves into a place they cant get out of and now suddenly find themselves in an elite environment and a knock comes on their door suggesting… we remember back when, when you were doing this, you owe us a favour. But not every league supports legalized sports gambling. Major League Baseball and the NHL both are resistant to the concept, even though some teams, such as the New Jersey Devils, have partnered with online gaming companies. MLB and the NHL, as well as the NCAA, contend sports betting would tarnish their image and might make it more appealing to athletes to engage in match fixing. When gambling is permitted on team sports, winning the bet may become more important than winning the game, Blue Jays president Paul Beeston testified in February 2013. The point spread or the number of runs scored may overshadow the games outcome and the intricacies of play. If large numbers of our fans come to regard baseball only or even partially as a gambling vehicle, the very nature of the sport will be altered and harmed. Its possible that Bill C-290 wont pass a vote in the senate. It won unanimous approval from all parties in the house of commons, but has been stalled in the Senate for nearly two years. Leagues have legitimate reasons to be cautious about sports gambling. Baseballs Pete Rose was banned for life in 1989 for gambling on his own sport. In football, coaches have been known to tell their teams the point spreads on games. NFL most valuable player Paul Hornung was suspended for the entire 1963 season after he admitted he gambled on NFL and college football games. Nearly a decade later, Jerry Sturm, a former player with the Houston Oilers, said he was offered $10,000 to try to throw a game in 1971 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In basketball, four players at Northwestern University conspired to fix their final game of the 1995 season against the University of Michigan. An associate of the players, a Notre Dame football player named Kevin Pendergast, travelled to Las Vegas and bet $20,150 at Caesars Palace that Michigan, 25-point favourites, would beat Northwestern by at least 26 points. Michigan didnt cover and the scheme unraveled. The NBAs reputation was tarnished in 2007 after the revelation that referee Tim Donaghy for four years conspired to fix the outcome of games. Donaghy advised professional gamblers on which teams to pick through phone calls and coded language. Donaghy was paid $5,000 to make correct picks on games and after he was caught, he served 15 months in detention, split between federal prisons and a halfway house. Even hockeys reputation has taken repeated blows. In 1948, NHL stars Billy Taylor and Don Gallinger was banned for life for gambling on games. (In an act of forgiveness, he was pardoned 22 years later). In the 1960s, Montreal police probed a scandal at the Forum after it was discovered that the timekeeper was manipulating the official game clock to change the time goals were scored, a move that affected payouts in city lotteries. In 2006, former NHL player and coach Rick Tocchet pleaded guilty to operating an illegal sports book and was suspended for a year by the NHL for organizing a betting ring that took in millions of dollars. Even this year, authorities in Europe uncovered a match-fixing scheme in Danish hockey. Then theres soccer, a frequent and seemingly easy target for match fixers. In 1986, Canadian World Cup veteran Paul James said he and other members of the national team were involved in match fixing during the Merlion Cup in Singapore. James said that he was playing cards with four fellow members of the national team when they approached him with the scheme. The five would divide a bribe worth a total of $100,000. In exchange, Canada would throw the semi-final against the North Koreans, which they were favoured to win. Canada, which had conceded one goal to that point in the tournament, lost 2-0. But James had already given his share back to the other four and had reported the affair. In 2011, police wiretaps in Germany revealed that a criminal organization was fixing games in the semi-pro Canadian Soccer League. Court documents showed that one match fixer traveled to Canada and allegedly offered a bribe of $18,000 to one of the leagues players. The International Ice Hockey Federation recently signed an agreement with Sportradar, a London-based company that monitors the betting patterns of more than 30,000 games each year across Europe. Sportradar officials believe around 300 soccer games a year are fixed in Europe. The companys computers use information from 450 bookmakers to look for unusual betting patterns that could indicate match fixing. The players, the coaches, the referees are infiltrated by match fixers in many different ways, said Sportradars Darren Small, adding that match fixers convince players to participate through financial gain, through bribery, through fear factor. Sportradar will monitor the world junior hockey championships, the Under-18 championships and the world championships for evidence of match-fixing under its contract with the IIHF, said a spokesman for the federation. Air Jordan 1 Canada . Gaborik was acquired in a trade with Columbus on Wednesday and skated on the top line with centre Anze Kopitar and right-winger Justin Williams. "We created some things," said Gaborik, who logged 16:38 of ice time. Wholesale Air Jordan 1 . Peter Dawson took his long before he started the job. "I was playing an American one year at Oxford Golf Club, and he introduced me to this travelling mulligan," Dawson said. http://www.cheapairjordan1canada.com/ . Tony Parker had 33 points and nine assists and San Antonio never trailed in a resounding 116-92 victory over Portland, bullying the younger Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Cheap Air Jordan 1 Sale . - Connor McDavid scored twice and added two assists as the Erie Otters beat the Sarnia Sting 7-3 on Saturday night in Ontario Hockey League action. Air Jordan 1 Canada Sale . -- Canadas Nicole Vandermade won the Four Winds Invitational on Sunday for her first Symetra Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke victory. TORONTO -- Even the pinch-hit return of Jose Bautista could not help the Toronto Blue Jays. The all-star right-fielder appeared in his first game in a week, pinch hitting in the sixth inning but grounding in to a force out on Sunday as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Blue Jays 4-0, Torontos third loss in a row. "Hopefully, Bautistas back in here the next couple of games to give us kind of a jolt in the lineup," said Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle who took the loss despite holding the White Sox to two runs in eight innings. Chicago got seven strong innings from left-hander Jose Quintana (5-7) and a home run and a double from right-fielder Moises Sierra, who started the season with Toronto. Bautista, who did not play in at all the in the previous six games because of a mild left hamstring strain, hopes that he will be able to return full-time by Tuesday when the Blue Jays next play. "Everybody knows I cant go out on the field and not be 100 per cent," Bautista said before the game after testing the leg by running. "Hopefully by Tuesday I feel better and I can be in the outfield. If not I can DH the whole game and play the day after." The return of the right-fielder cannot come soon enough. The Blue Jays finished with a 12-15 record in June after winning the first five games of the month. They lead the American League East despite losing nine of their past 13 games. The Blue Jays won only the opener of the four-game series against the White Sox (39-44) who are fourth in the American League Central. Besides Bautistas potent right-handed bat, Toronto (45-39) is also without Brett Lawrie who is on the disabled list with a broken right index finger. "Theyre a big part of it, no question about that," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons . "Really its been a couple of weeks weve been cold, regardless. We had some games in there we put some runs up. Overall, since our big streak (21-9 in May), weve cooled off quite a bit there. We need to get going. Today was just kind of flat, one of those dead days. "Buehrle pitched good enough to win, he really did. He did what he always does. We got zero going and its frustrating." Torontos hitters are frustrated with the scoring drought as well. "It is hard because you never know whos going to be in the lineup," said Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes who had a double and a single on Sunday. "Theres a lot of different people every single day, coming up from the minor leagues and stuff. People need to step it up. If we want to continue to be in first place we need to play better baseball." Quintana held the Blue Jays to three hiits and two walks while striking out seven.dddddddddddd Hes won back-to-back starts. Buehrle (10-5), who has not won since June 1, lost for the fourth time in his past five starts. He allowed six hits, two walks and two runs while striking out five against in his second career start against his former team. White Sox designated hitter Jose Abreu extended his hit streak to 14 games with an RBI single in the third inning. He drove in second baseman Gordon Beckham who hit a two-out double. Sierra hit his second homer of the season with one out in the fourth to put the White Sox into a 2-0 lead. Chicago claimed Sierra off waivers from the Blue Jays on May 3. Buehrle knows Sierra will chase pitches out of the strike zone from watching him Toronto but lamented his change-up down the middle of the plate. "I pretty much teed one up for him and thats what hes supposed to do with it," Buehrle said. The Blue Jays did not have as many as two runners on base in an inning until the sixth when Reyes doubled with one out and designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion walked with two out. That brought out Bautista, who had not played since June 22, to bat for catcher Dioner Navarro. Reyes took third on a wild pitch as Bautista worked the count to 3-2 on Quintana. But he hit a ground ball to shortstop and Encarnacion was forced out at second to end the inning. "I tried to keep the ball down with him," Quintana said. "Behind in the count 2-0, I wanted to keep the ball away. After Im behind in the count, I just tried to get the round ball." The White Sox added two runs in the ninth against right-hander Sergio Santos on a single by catcher Tyler Flowers. It scored first baseman Paul Konerko who walked with one out and took third on Sierras double. Left-hander Eric Surkamp pitched the eighth and right-hander Jake Petricka took over for the ninth. NOTES: Attendance at Rogers Centre was 33,177. a.Left-handed reliever Brett Cecil (groin), who is on the disabled list, will start his minor-league rehabilitation assignment with triple-A Buffalo on Monday. aBautista injured the hamstring while beating out a bunt on June 22 at Cincinnati. aLeft-fielder Melky Cabrera also was not in the lineup with Darin Mastroianni starting in his place. Cabrera, who needed a day off and has not hit Quintana well in his career, pinch hit unsuccessfully in the eighth against Surkamp. aThe Blue Jays have Monday off before concluding their home stand with two afternoon games against the Milwaukee Brewers with right-hander Drew Hutchison (5-6, 4.00) facing right-hander Marco Estrada (7-4, 5.06 ERA) on Tuesday. ' ' '