Alan Truex: Supreme Court opens door to legal bookmaking everywhere
Gambling and sports have had a troubled relationship, dating at least to the 1919 Black Sox. They threw the World Series for less money from the Mafia than they were earning legitimately.
There’s more history here than most of us want to know. College basketball players fixing games in the 1950s, ‘70s and ‘90s. NBA ref in prison in 2008 for the same thing. And of course there was Pete Rose betting on baseball, even games in which he was playing and managing.
We like to think that the gambling scandals common in boxing or horse racing or jai ali would not happen – at least more than once or twice — in our three hallowed team sports of baseball, football and basketball.
But upon further reflection, purity is lacking in all sports on this continent, wherever billions are being made. Even hockey, big-league in most of the 20 largest cities of the USA, had its own Black Sox: the players’ union chief Alan Eagleson in 1992 was living in a Toronto correctional center after conviction of embezzlement.
The appeal of capitalism is that it creates vast wealth for those who have the wherewithal and audacity to seize an opportunity and then have a lucky result. But it can be ruinous to those of us prone to addiction or at least to the false allure of a greener pasture.
So I wonder about the significance of the Supreme Court deciding by 6-3 margin that every state — not just Nevada — has the right to legalized book-making.
How big is the illegal betting industry? The New York Times says $150 billion, and I don’t know why it would go fake on this. The legal sports books of Las Vegas churn out only 3% what the illegal bookies are doing.
When you ponder the total impact, you could see this case, Murphy v. NCAA, becoming the most famous SCOTUS ruling since Brown v. Board of Education.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is prescient in predicting sports trends (even if he has no idea where his hands will be), and he said: “It’s going to at least double the value of every team in the four major sports.”
Cuban sees millions more people watching the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL if they can legally wager on the games.
“It’s going to be fun to go to a baseball game again,” he said. “With all that down time . . . ”
Time enough to check the sabermetrics. Is the next pitch likely to be a ball or a strike? Bet on it. Hope there’s no dropped call.
How about the NFL, coming off a 10% ratings swoon in 2017? You will have an ap on your cell phone to provide telecasts of the games and your betting options. More reason to watch more football.
But there is a dark side. Stone-faced Ring Lardner characters will lurk with binoculars near the players’ parking lots, trying to see if Rob Gronkowski or Ben Roethlisberger is limping.
As the bookmaking business booms, information becomes exponentially more valuable.
Chris Simms, former NFL starting quarterback, said on Pro Football Talk (NBCSN): “I do worry about the integrity of the game. More cash, more people involved, more people desperate to get to players to influence the game.”
Don’t think it’s never happened.
When their tongues are loosened by alcohol, some retired football players will speak off the record of a Hall of Fame quarterback who shaved points – never trying to lose a game, but making sure his team didn’t win by more than the spread.
I’m not buying any argument that big-time athletes now make so much money they won’t be tempted to cheat. Pete Rose was poor?
Mike Florio, co-hosting with Simms on PFT, said, “You could have players placing bets through their phones or through a friend’s phone or through a burner phone, and you could have players doing things to deliberately affect the outcome of a game. That’s what the NFL is trying to avoid, and I don’t know what they can do to prevent that from happening.”
Florio, who is well sourced, predicts that “six to ten states will have sports gambling in place by the time the next NFL regular season begins.”
The American Gaming Association, lobbying arm of the Vegas casinos, will be delivering contributions to the campaigns of politicians – perhaps even a casino-owning President — who will decide what restraints are needed for this new industry. And how much tax money will be collected to regulate it.
We may see unfettered capitalism at its most rampant. It will be the Roaring Twenties again. Or the Greed-Is-Good Nineties day-trading the stock market.
Inexorably, the boom ends, for whatever reasons, some predictable, some not so much. A crippling bust ensues.
There’s danger here not only to middle-class bettors. Billionaire owners can stumble over constitutions and courts. Eddie DeBartolo of the San Francisco 49ers wanted to build a racetrack in Louisiana, so when the governor required money from him, he committed bribery. There was no other way to get the permit he wanted.
Point being that with all the new and old money about to pour into the gambling industry and those associated with it, temptation is everywhere. I can understand why Mormons and Baptists oppose the repeal of the gambling prohibition. There will be lots of new things, some desirable, some not.
Red Man’s casinos and White Man’s racetracks will be among the first establishments to offer football bets, with much of the infrastructure already in place. The major sports will ask the states to let them charge an “integrity fee” (perhaps 1%) to the gambling venues. Politicians will collect from them as much as from their adversaries in the Gaming Association.
On the plus side, not as many gambling addicts will have their knees broken. The Mafia will suffer a hit, but don’t be surprised if illegal bookies succeed with a black-market business that undercuts the legal ones. Hopefully the Mob will keep the politicians from skimming too much.
There will be more instant replay, so many dollars balanced on every snap. High-stakes fantasy leagues no longer will be restricted, as they currently are in Texas and other states. In a world craving ever more excitement, the Supreme Court gives us perhaps more than we can handle.