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Week of March 18, 2003 |
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Shhhhh! Everybody's in Vegas |
LAS VEGAS, March 18 (UPI) Thank God there's a war on, so Congress doesn't have time
to notice the college basketball tournament this week.
Normally this would be the time of year when various high brahmins of the academy and solons
of the senate rise up to decry the influence of gambling yes, gambling, I say, GAMBLING on college
sports. The specific target of their wrath: the NCAA basketball tournament, which begins this week and
which will, in its first two days, far surpass any other sports event in terms of money wagered. (Yes,
that includes the Super Bowl and heavyweight fights.)
And yet the money gambled on NCAA games in the state of Nevada the only state where
sports betting is legal is estimated to be only 3 percent of the nation's total gambling haul. The other 97
percent is either illegal (your friendly dormitory bookie, your office pool) or quasi-legal (offshore
Internet sports books). It's gotten to where a basketball game is no fun at all unless you have a financial
stake in the outcome.
At any rate, this weekend figures to be the fattest of the year for the Stardust Casino traditional
home of sports bettors, and their nostalgic hangout as well as all the other hotels with sports books.
There are even some sports bettors get a load of this who wager so much money on the NCAA
tournament that they're ranked with "whale" blackjack players and are treated to the best rooms and
amenities by the book operators soliciting their business.
Of course, what a two-edged sword THAT is. Give a guy a million-dollar betting limit, and he's
liable to go down to the betting window two minutes before game time and . . . uh . . . bet a million
dollars. And yes yes, I know, a million dollars is not what it used to be, but it's still enough to move a
line if you have time. I presume they have some agreement with these guys that they won't slip all their
money into the pool at the very last minute.
So why DO all the sports bettors descend on Vegas this weekend?
Beats me. Sports betting is probably the least social form of gambling there is, even less social
than horse racing or slot machines. All you really need is an Internet account and a bank of TV sets
hooked up to satellite, and any major sports bettor would no doubt already have that in his house.
Nevertheless, the tradition is to hit the road and head for the Strip, then sit in the book throughout all 48
games (!) of the tournament's first four days. It's sort of like the annual Iron Man Marathon of this
particularly sedentary business. Since actual exercise is out of the question, they substitute the ability to
simply keep your eyes open for four days as a worthy substitute. No doubt the guys who put down
bets on the 48th and final game celebrate with high-fives and back-slaps. Then again, they might just
pass out face down in their complimentary salisbury steak.
I haven't heard much from Congress during the past year about their perennial plans to ban
betting on college sports teams in Nevada. Their idea is that somehow it invites organized crime to take
an interest in the games. Actually the opposite is true. Organized crime, in the form of the street bookie,
is much more interested in games that don't have an "official" spread. Congress is also concerned that
somehow the betting encourages athletes to shave points and otherwise cheat. But once again, Nevada
only represents 3 percent of the betting, and, as Frank DeFord has pointed out, the legal gambling
industry functions as the canary on the miner's helmet. If anyone tries to rig a game, and starts dumping
huge amounts of money onto one team, it will show up immediately.
At any rate, I have four questions about this tired controversy that I've never received adequate
answers to. If anyone knows, please write in.
The first is: Why is Congress simultaneously opposed to sports betting and Internet casinos?
The best way to get rid of Internet casinos overnight is to legalize sports betting in all 50 states. Without
sports betting, Internet casinos cease to exist. As soon as someone has a place on the corner where he
can legally collect his money as in Mexico or England then Internet casinos become an incredibly
SCARY prospect. What? I'm gonna trust some guy in Costa Rica to send me my check? I think I'll
just drop off the bet on my way to work instead. Just for convenience alone, the Internet casinos would
lose and 95 percent of their business is sports. Which leads to my second question:
How did we end up with this strange obscure law that specifically says Nevada is the only state
in the union allowed to offer sports betting? It's not just a CHOICE by the other 49 states, it's the
actual law of the land. How does something so arcane become an actual federal law?
Third: Why does Nevada ban betting on Nevada teams? If their argument is correct that
legalized sports betting keeps college athletics clean then why would they need to "protect" UNLV?
What difference does it make if the bet is placed 2,500 miles from a college or right across the street?
We all DO have cell phones, you know.
Fourth and most important: Do you like Colorado State as a plus-14 « dog bet against Duke?
Get back to me right away on that one, if you don't mind. * © Copyright 2003 United Press International and Joe Bob Briggs |