It wasn’t that long ago when sports betting was illegal. Then suddenly it was as though profit, rather than controlling this vice, became paramount. It was inevitable, given human nature, that bad things would follow legalization.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal carried a front-page story that reported “one of the most sprawling gambling cases in the history of American sports: a national and international conspiracy to allegedly rig dozens of games that reached from U.S. college basketball to the top professional league in China.”
There was a time in America when laws against gambling were believed necessary because of the potential harm it caused by corrupting the sport and causing some people to risk more than they could afford to lose. Vice in all its manifestations was something society once thought should be controlled. Consider three of vice’s definitions: “depravity, wrong, fault.” When those definitions become subjective, the door is opened to promoting, not controlling, gambling and other vices. What could follow? Some politicians say prostitution should be made legal nationwide, and not in just certain parts of Nevada and Maine, where it’s legal to sell sex, but illegal to buy it.
Now we have betting platforms that go by the names DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook, among others. From their TV ads, many seem to target Black gamblers.
During my brief college basketball career, the coach would come to the locker room after a game to distribute what was called “lunch money.” This was during a time when there was supposed to be strict separation between professional and amateur sports. Now, college players are being paid for the use of their “image” and other things. Some are enticed to transfer to other schools that offer better financial deals. Today there seems little difference between college and professional sports, including the number of tattoos. Alumni contribute cash to their alma maters, hoping to produce winning teams.