Betting on Sports: the High Stakes of Legalized Sports Betting

My dad and I both show a love for sports. We love many sports but we both deeply enjoy baseball. Baseball can be a very controversial topic, especially in the year 1919. Should the United States legalize sports betting? I believe legalized sports threatens the integrity of amatuer and professional sports. It will also increase gambling addictions. I will be talking about gambling and betting in casinos. Betting can also risk athletes their scholarships or career. Finally, without the states doing anything about sports betting, it slowly becomes more popular.

You can gamble in other areas such as casinos!

Young people risk developing a gambling problem at a rate of about two to three times that of adults, and approximately six percent of college students in America have a gambling problem. NCPG research says roughly 40 percent of people with a gambling problem started gambling before the age of 17. There have been financial scandals involving “thrown fights” and shaved points extending back as far back as the “Black Sox” scandal of 1919, where some Chicago White Sox players agreed to throw games to benefit gamblers. The Supreme Court decision has removed even a veil of disapproval from sports gambling and what was once reserved for Las Vegas and illicit bookies will now go national. The Supreme Court recently struck down a 1992 federal law that had effectively banned commercial sports betting in most states. That, according to the New York Times, opens the door “… to legalizing the estimated $150 billion in illegal wagers on professional and amateur sports that Americans make every year.” “Human nature being what it is it should come as no shock that the next level of approved gambling in America is sports betting. States already have casinos, the lottery and other ways of separating money from the weak for their ravenous and bottomless coffers.”

Betting can risk great athletes ther Scholarship and possibly their career!

Ultimately, student-athletes may find themselves in trouble with the NCAA and face ineligibility or sanctions that range from a one-year ban to the permanent loss of eligibility in all sports. “I ask that our state leaders take note of the incredible ethical issues behind this recent decision to make sports betting legal and familiarize themselves with the inherent risks to student-athlete well-being.”

We cannot continue to put our nation’s student-athletes at risk and need to act to ensure their safety throughout this new venture”. “The Supreme Court made history last week [May 14, 2018] when it decided that the federal government did not have the authority to regulate or prohibit sports betting through the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 and that any action to do so was unconstitutional. The power now rests in the hands of state officials to legalize gambling on sports at both the professional and collegiate levels.” (Orlando Sentinel (Online)) In this article, the author contends that the legalization of sports betting poses inherent risks to the well-being of college athletes.

Without the state doing anything about sport betting, it slowly becomes more popular!

Without a national standard, states are likely to enter into a race to the bottom by offering lax oversight to attract more sports betting. The states can’t help themselves. They’re addicted to the money. Then it was full-fledged casinos. Now, thanks to the dogged efforts of New Jersey and Monday’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Such game fixing is rare in big-time sports for the simple reason that few players or referees would jeopardize their very ample legitimate salaries. The average NFL ref, for instance, makes nearly $200,000 a year for a job that is both part-time and seasonal. Player pay ranges from $480,000 to $30 million. “It is time to talk about an important addiction problem–the one in which states hustle, beg and pimp for every dollar of gambling revenue they can get their grubby little hands on. A couple of decades ago, states insisted that they just wanted some slot machines here and there. Then it was full-fledged casinos. Now, thanks to the dogged efforts of New Jersey and Monday’s [May 14, 2018] 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, they have been given the green light to enter the sports betting racket.

“You can gamble and bid in other areas, such as casinos. Betting can also risk athletes their scholarships and possible a professional career. Without the states protecting these athletes, sports betting becomes even more dangerous and popular. I believe that betting on amatuer/proffesional sports events can create problems such as, point shaving or gambling addictions. We can stop this by persuading the state attorneys to continue the ban on sports betting.

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