Team Sport Gambling?

Do you want more gambling in New Jersey? Chris Christie wanted it. Now he is leaving as Governor of the state. He wanted more of it but traditionally gambling on sports games by players were unforgivable. Throughout the years the sports leagues have avoided the gambling capitol of America, Las Vegas. But now that view is all changed. The NFL recently broke ground on a large stadium on the Las Vegas strip. It will soon become home to the Oakland Raiders. Soon after the NHL arrived in Vegas. Now the newest hockey expansion team called the Vegas Golden Knights is in Vegas too.

Now they want every sport imaginable to have a home in Vegas.  Why all of a sudden pro sports is in Vegas? Because the big leagues want to strike it rich too and Vegas is helping to foot the bill to create new stadiums there. Even the sin city aspect of Vegas wants to cash in on the idea. The Bunny Ranch owner plans to open a Raiders-themed brothel just outside of Las Vegas. Yes, boys you can go the  game  at the stadium and then go to the whore house where she will be waiting for you wearing just a jersey.  Then your personal games can begin! Sigh!

New Jersey said they are ready for legalized sports gambling. Chris Christie wanted it at his stadiums and race tracks. The Jersey voters approved of Christie' s proposal. Then the sports leagues sued him and stopped his plan dead in its tracks. So why are they going to Vegas? There is even a radio station in Vegas called VSIN that is all about gambling on sports games. People think that legal gambling will make the sports be more honest and exposed. With legalization comes regulatory agencies as watch dogs. Now the N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver wants to legalize and regulate sports betting. The sports leagues don’t trust Christie because they don’t believe that he will share in the profits and they want a piece of the action.

The Supreme Court will hear the case. All we know is that legal betting in Las Vegas is worth about $5 billion dollars but illegal betting going on everywhere else in America is worth $100 billion dollars. That is going to be a bad habit hard to break. Who can ever forget all the crap Pete Rose took when he bet on his own baseball games. He lost his career and he was one of the best players in baseball. The country’s opinions have changed on sports betting and is more tolerant of the practice. We should just leave the gambling to Vegas where they are being regulated and watched all the time. Can we even trust the players to perform an honest game or will they purposely lose a game because they themselves bet on their loss? We can’t regulate what is going through the minds of the players who are in control of a game’s outcome win or lose.