When Can We Bet on Sports?

Last week the US Supreme Court ruled that Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was unconstitutional. The highest court in the land are leaving it up to the states to decide if they want to allow legal sports betting. The law prior to the historic ruling only allowed the state of Nevada, Oregon, Delaware and Montana exemptions from the federal law outlawing sports betting.

Really it was just Nevada that was running the legal sports books. The state of New Jersey thought this wasn’t cool and decided that they wanted to get in on this and that is how we got to the Supreme Court. The court in a 6-3 decision decided that it should be up to the states to decide if they would like to allow sports betting or not. So now each state will have to determine do they want to get into the legalized sports betting game.

So, what now? The state of New Jersey will have this thing rocking and rolling sooner than later. They want to get Atlantic City rocking and rolling again. With Vegas not having the monopoly on such a thing who else will get into fray? Most states will probably at some point legalize sports betting.

Now how will the leagues handle this? The NBA is excited, and Commissioner Adam Silver has long embraced the idea and sees a lot of positives for their league. With gambling being something that is done anyway now it being above board will allow the leagues to talk about it in a way they didn’t before. Professional sports leagues tried to act like gambling wasn’t a thing yet put out mandatory injury reports. Why would teams want to give up that information? They don’t but they are forced by the powers that be in their leagues because somebody wanted that inside track. Newspapers publish the betting lines for every game so now we can not pretend anymore.

So, what can go wrong with this new thing we have? I do not believe that there will be this massive gambling explosion but there will be more casual action and sites like Draft Kings and Fanduel already have an infrastructure that will allow them to take advantage of our new freedom. So, what can go wrong with this new thing we have? I do not believe that there will be this massive gambling explosion but there will be more casual action and sites like Draft Kings and Fanduel already have an infrastructure that will allow them to take advantage of our new freedom.

So, what will be the consequences and how will the leagues respond? The big 4 sports in the United States will be fine for the most part. The athletes that can affect the outcomes of games make way too much money to compromise their positions for a few betting dollars. The referees will be under major scrutiny but with things being legal it will be easier to track. The place where the most damage could be done will be college sports.

America loves its college sports and are passionate about their teams. Fans will be very enthusiastic to place a bet on the alma mater or big team in their state. The problem is that the star at the university is not getting paid. Now we argue all day about the scholarship, but have you tried to spend a scholarship at Best Buy, it doesn’t go too far. Colleges were always worried about the kids getting in with a bookie, like in some of the classic point shaving scandals. Now what if these same kids can now just place some bet or smarter ones who will have someone place a bet for them. What about the young person whose brother or best friend talks them into this scheme?

Outside of the kids there will be a few cottage industries that develop around the gambling. Expect the pay day loan business to have a few spin offs to help people with those betting debts. For right now all is quiet on the Western front. We are waiting for states to get this up and running to see what it looks like. Just in the meantime hopefully everybody is preparing for the good and the bad.

Keith B. Holt

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