Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting?

Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting
N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver: Allow Gambling on Pro Games
By ADAM SILVER NOV. 13, 2014  The New York Times

BETTING on professional sports is currently illegal in most of the United States outside of Nevada...

the National Basketball Association has opposed the expansion of legal sports betting, as have the other major professional sports leagues in the United States...

But despite legal restrictions, sports betting is widespread. It is a thriving underground business that operates free from regulation or oversight...

Gambling has increasingly become a popular and accepted form of entertainment in the United States. Most states offer lotteries. Over half of them have legal casinos. Three have approved some form of Internet gambling, with others poised to follow...

Mainstream media outlets regularly publish sports betting lines and point spreads. Voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly voiced their support for legal sports betting in a 2011 referendum...

Outside of the United States, sports betting and other forms of gambling are popular, widely legal and subject to regulation...

the laws on sports betting should be changed ...

Without a comprehensive federal solution, state measures such as New Jersey’s recent initiative will be both unlawful and bad public policy...

Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game.
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That was published nine days ago and by now you've probably heard about it, heard commentary and moved on to other issues like handicapping player moves.

from wikipedia.org

Baseball has a special notoriety because of the 1919 scandal when seven members of the Chicago White Sox took money from gamblers to deliberately lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  This led to the formation of a commissioner's office.  Federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis became the first commissioner and he banned eight White Sox players*, including Buck Weaver who knew of the conspiracy but did not report it. The newer National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) took their positions from baseball's lead.

But old tends to be slow to change and the youngest of these three leagues, the NBA, with it's new commissioner, has taken a logical first step in dealing with the elephant in the room: GAMBLING.  The point spread in football and basketball make them much easier for gambling than baseball, which relies on odds.

Today is Saturday.  This afternoon turn on your TV and see how many college football games are on.  I do not believe that's because there are so many people who associate with particular schools.  I think it is gamblers monitoring their bets in very real time.

Pretending that this elephant is not in our living rooms is foolish.  Better to deal with it, however meekly.

* superstar batter Shoeless Joe Jackson, star pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude Lefty Williams, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, center fielder Happy Felsch and reserve infielder Fred McMullin.