Most of the ubiquitous ads for gambling end with a warning along the lines of, "If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.”
The number should be flooded with calls about most every college and professional sports league. They definitely have a gambling problem, and if they don’t get it under control, it may leave fans more suspicious than ever that the outcome of games is rigged and that the players and coaches are corrupt. It could reduce America’s favorite pastimes to the level of pro wrestling -- entertaining maybe, but nothing about which to be passionate or to pay good money to watch.
In the seven years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a congressional ban on sports betting in most states, the availability of legal sportsbooks and the money wagered with them have exploded. In 2018, Americans legally spent less than $5 billion on sports bets in three states, most of it in Nevada. Last year, with sports gambling legal in 39 states and the District of Columbia, the spending soared to almost $150 billion -- a thirtyfold increase in just six years.
We’re starting to see the negative effects on not only the gamblers, whose losses are approaching $15 billion a year, but also on the integrity of the sports themselves. A growing number of athletes and coaches have been accused of betting on sports, which is forbidden by their leagues, or worse colluding with gamblers to manipulate game outcomes and the players’ own individual performances. Mississippi has been snagged in the scandal, with the NCAA recently announcing that two basketball players at Mississippi Valley State University participated in a scheme last season so that their team would lose by more than the point spread.
All sports betting can be corrupting, but particularly problematic are the so-called “proposition bets,” in which gamblers bet on the performance of individual athletes -- anything from how many yards a quarterback will throw for in a game to how fast a relief pitcher will throw his first pitch. It was just such prop bets that, according to federal prosecutors, led two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians to rig their pitches in return for payoffs from gamblers who made a bundle by betting correctly on what the pitchers would throw.
Those who support legalized sports betting say the system is working because the sophisticated monitoring of atypically high wagering is catching the cheaters. But is it really? Or is it only catching those who are dumb enough to talk with teammates about what they are doing or are participating in a scheme that is so obvious. One of the supposedly rigged MVSU games, for example, was a Southwestern Athletic Conference matchup with Alabama A&M – not exactly a game that attracted national attention. Yet, according to the NCAA, the game drew 3.6 times higher than the average amount wagered on SWAC games. How’s that for a red flag that something is up?
Less than a decade ago, sports leagues avoided any association with gambling or gamblers. No longer satisfied, though, with the riches that television contracts and luxury suites provide, the leagues are now making billions by getting into business with the sportsbooks. TV broadcasts of college and professional games are inundated with commercials for sports betting. One of the broadcasters, ESPN, extensively promotes its own sportsbook and runs regular segments on how to bet on the games.
The greed shared by the owners, the coaches, the athletes and the networks has lured the sports industry to strike this unholy deal. It could backfire, though, as the betting scandals proliferate. Those who follow sports for its competitive thrill may become disenchanted and stop watching. And the gamblers may move their money to the stock market, where the odds are less that the fix is in.
