Sports and gambling have a complicated relationship

The legal fight over sports gambling is currently being waged most heavily in New Jersey, where the state assembly approved asking voters to legalize sports bets in Atlantic City casinos.

The idea is to cash in on increased tourism (as much as $800 million) and guard against the kinds of scandals in New Jersey that have led to the recent arrests of alleged mobsters, casino employees, a state trooper and NHL assistant coach Rick Tocchet.

“It may be the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary pass,” said Democratic Assemblyman Lou Greenwald, “but fighting for legalized pro sports gaming is a play New Jersey can’t afford to pass up.”

The NFL is fighting the proposal, which would need approval not only of New Jersey voters, but the repeal of federal law.

“It’s bad policy,” said NFL attorney David Remes, “because it turns human players into roulette chips with the sanction of the state.”

That last quote is sure to get the attention of people inside the gaming industry, virtually all of whom see legalized sports betting as the most reliable form of preventing point-shaving scandals, and some of whom go even further.

“Gambling on professional and collegiate sports is the engine that drives these (leagues),” says Michael Konik, author of The Smart Money: How the World’s Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions. “It’s one of those emperor-isn’t-wearing-any-clothes situations. Out of one side of their mouth they’re talking about what a horrible evil gambling is. On the other side, their business is built on this foundation.”

New Jersey’s action, and the NFL’s reaction to it, brings to light the impossible line that all pro sports leagues and the NCAA must walk between indirectly profiting from the interest generated by gambling and guarding against game-fixing, which remains sports’ greatest potential threat.

One referee with ties to gambling ties became what NBA commissioner David Stern called “the worst situation that I have ever experienced.”

The success of “Monday Night Football” was driven in no insignificant part by gamblers trying to double their weekend winnings or chase their weekend losses. The Super Bowl and March Madness may be our country’s most popular sporting events — and they also happen to be our country’s most popular betting events.

The NFL is the unquestioned king of our national sports landscape, and books have been written giving part of that credit to how simple and enticing football is to gamble on.

Mainstream media is part of it, too, with shows all over the country picking games against the point spread, which can almost always be found in the local newspaper, including The Star.

League officials might privately recognize the connection between gambling and interest in their games, but that’s only the beginning of a complicated relationship.

“That’s not the interest they want to promote,” says Peter Roby, head of Northeastern’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society. “But in a lot of ways, it’s only because of the bookmakers in Las Vegas that the leagues can know when someone’s trying to fix one of their games. That’s why I think it’s a necessary evil.”