Posted on 05/22/2024 6:13:12 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
For decades, Las Vegas was the only place in the country where sports betting was legal. And once upon a time, the men who ran the major sports leagues were terrified of betting. The great fear was that it would corrupt the players, who would be tempted to fix games.
Turns out, those fears were valid. In the last year, there’s been a spate of gambling-related controversies. The NBA is investigating Toronto’s Jontay Porter for taking himself out of two games to boost gamblers betting against his performance. Major League Baseball’s best player, Shohei Ohtani, is under a cloud after his Japanese translator used $4.5 million of Ohtani’s money to pay off gambling debts. (For the moment, at least, the translator is believed to have stolen the money from Ohtani, and he says he never bet on baseball.) And in 2023, the NFL suspended five players for betting on games in their own league.
Perhaps these controversies were inevitable. Because these days, professional sports have a lot to do with Vegas.
The dam broke in 2017, when the National Hockey League put a franchise in Las Vegas, and when the Oakland Raiders relocated to the city—where they play in a stadium where gambling takes place. The following year, a Supreme Court decision opened the doors to sports betting across the country; 38 states have since legalized it. Since then, online sports betting behemoths FanDuel and DraftKing have plastered their logos on the floors of basketball arenas and become major advertisers for televised pro sports events. And this year’s Super Bowl actually took place in the Raiders stadium—yes, the one where gambling takes place.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefp.com ...
What movie is that from?
It’s a long list of things that have contributed to the ruination of sports.
Gambling is a big reason.
Other reasons include extremely high prices for everything, no more amateurs everyone’s getting paid now, idiot drunken fans/criminals at the games, taxpayers funding billionaires’ stadiums, dumbing down of the rules, idiot zebras that are blind and dumb.
Almost forgot, also the woke anti American kneeling fools.
Rollerball (1975)
100%
Professional golfers came from gamblers paying golfers to play matches so that they could bet on the matches.
When I find myself agreeing with Bill Bradley, the guy that saw to it being banned despite it being legal in almost the entire rest of the world-I know that I need to rethink things.
I completely agree.
I don’t have a problem with betting on games per se - I’ve done it; pools, fantasy leagues, even parlay cards in Vegas (and I’ll copy to, ummm... parlays NOT in Vegas, but well past the statute of limitations, IRS watcher!).
I still love a lot of that - and I’ll be playing both fantasy football and running my rotisserie baseball team until they pry them from cold, dead hands.
But yeesh... You cannot *watch* a game - or even read about players or teams or teams you enjoy anymore without getting buried in ads and stupid stuff about proposition bets.
It’s gotten so ridiculously out of control.
I’m very much a libertarian on most things involving individual actions: Do what you want so long as you take responsibility and I don’t have to pay for your failures.
But - yikes. I’m so tired of watching/reading/etc sports I like where 80% of it involves prop bets I don’t care about.
I mean, even if I end up drafting Josh Jacobs - there’s a damn limit to how much I care about his game number!!! Not being a degenerate gambler, I’d rather he post 10 yards in 3-0 win than run for 200 with 2 TDs in a 35-42 loss!
I feel it skews NFL refereeing, one way or another. jmo
I notice the same.
And let’s not forget the neighborhood “Numbers operations”.
NIL and the portal are ruining college football. You see players that play for 3 even 4 schools over their college career.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, our Corporate Anthem.”
The horses don’t know that people are gambling on them.
“...The horses don’t know that people are gambling on them...”
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The Jockey’s do.
Now, how about greyhound racing?
I’m watching the Rangers/Panthers game last night and the graphics being shown on the ice and boards were for draft kings. Just another way to destroy the American fabric.
Same here.
Football is the opiate of the masses
All sports are going to go the way of Pro Wrestling.
100% entertainment 0% competition.
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