Basketball has the Tim Donaghy point shaving scandal. Baseball had the Pete Rose and Black Sox scandals. Football had the Paul Hornung and Alex Karras scandal. College sports has suffered multiple gambling scandals. So what's the best way to prevent gambling in sports? Some say by legalizing sports betting.
By legalizing sportsbooks throughout the country, and not just in Vegas, all odds makers will be on alert whenever games look suspicious. After all, MLB already monitors baseball gambling trends to look for irregularities.
David Stern argues that, "By making it legal, you're going to encourage more people to bet." True, but as long as we know the games themselves are not corrupt, how is that a bad thing? And from the league's point of view, legalized gambling will only help falling TV ratings. The more people that have a stake in the game, the more that will watch.
Perhaps legalized sports betting is the best thing that could happen to sports leagues in the U.S.
Place your vote now, in the upper right hand corner of this page.
from Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post
read more...The integrity of the NBA is broke. Don't worry. Somebody will fix it.
Wanna bet?
Thank you, Tim Donaghy. Do not collect your $260,000 salary as a referee with an apparent gambling itch. Proceed directly to jail, where a new uniform will be waiting. Maybe something in zebra stripes.
It took this rogue ref to blow the whistle on a harsh reality that won't go away, no matter how sternly commissioner David Stern covers his eyes.
There are two great guilty pleasures in the United States.
Cheeseburgers.
And gambling.
2 comments:
The online poll closed on Tuesday, August 7, 2007. The results were slightly in favor of the legalization of sports gambling, 58% to 42%.
Sports gambling should be legal for everyone except the actual people closely involved with the sport.
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