The popularity of online gambling, especially among young men, has addiction researchers worried in New York, where mobile sports betting has surpassed casino gambling as the primary reason for calls to the state’s helpline.
Sports teams don’t want it because it incentivizes cheating / rigging games.
this isn’t true generally speaking. In fact the reasoning they give is that gambling has always been there to incentivize cheating/rigging, but at least now it’s out in the open and easier to track.
some individual players or staff may speak out against sports betting, but in the aggregate the players and leagues are happy to take the revenue it generates. Hell lots of team owners have their own gambling right in the stadium, for example ted leonsis in DC, and the owners of the Dallas Mavericks own the Sands casinos and have been lobbying to legalize gambling in Texas. If any parties really took issue with it they could address it in their collective bargaining agreements, but it has never been a contentious issue as far as i know. It makes them money and that’s really all that matters, no one is willing to give that up despite the nuisace it causes.
The difference is that black market gambling is distributed. It means that there are fewer protections for people who engage in it but more people profiting from it.
But legalization just means most of the action is controlled by a handful of corporations, and the government is involved in protecting the flow of money, of which they get a cut.
There’s also the issue of volume, more betting volume could mean more opportunity for corruption. I don’t have numbers but i’m guessing there is a lot more betting now that it’s legal, with ads and sponsorships constantly in your face, and easily accessible with phone apps and sportsbooks. But i have not seen any officially expressed concern about that aspect from any league representatives, only spin that it’s better legalized and regulated.
The overall point is that sports leagues definitely do want sports betting. more engagement, ad sales, endorsements, and they can even get in on the action directly by ownership or investments.
this isn’t true generally speaking. In fact the reasoning they give is that gambling has always been there to incentivize cheating/rigging, but at least now it’s out in the open and easier to track.
some individual players or staff may speak out against sports betting, but in the aggregate the players and leagues are happy to take the revenue it generates. Hell lots of team owners have their own gambling right in the stadium, for example ted leonsis in DC, and the owners of the Dallas Mavericks own the Sands casinos and have been lobbying to legalize gambling in Texas. If any parties really took issue with it they could address it in their collective bargaining agreements, but it has never been a contentious issue as far as i know. It makes them money and that’s really all that matters, no one is willing to give that up despite the nuisace it causes.
The difference is that black market gambling is distributed. It means that there are fewer protections for people who engage in it but more people profiting from it.
But legalization just means most of the action is controlled by a handful of corporations, and the government is involved in protecting the flow of money, of which they get a cut.
There’s also the issue of volume, more betting volume could mean more opportunity for corruption. I don’t have numbers but i’m guessing there is a lot more betting now that it’s legal, with ads and sponsorships constantly in your face, and easily accessible with phone apps and sportsbooks. But i have not seen any officially expressed concern about that aspect from any league representatives, only spin that it’s better legalized and regulated.
The overall point is that sports leagues definitely do want sports betting. more engagement, ad sales, endorsements, and they can even get in on the action directly by ownership or investments.
“regulated” doing a lot of heavy lifting