Gambling is not a game
The Wild West of Nevada, where it’s long been legal to bet on pro and college sports, is set to spread north, south and east now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a 36-year-old federal law banning most states from allowing sportsbook. New York can’t stop our neighbors over the Hudson in New Jersey — who mounted the challenge and won the case — from letting people plunk down thousands on the spread, the overunder and every exotic bet under the sun.
We can and must hold the line here, however, by preventing sports bets outside of the fullfledged upstate casinos where other forms of gambling are already allowed, and where sports betting was prospectively authorized, pending federal action, in 2013.
We don’t pretend New Yorkers are puritans. Our state is home to horse tracks sponsored and subsidized by the government. A state lottery that promises instant riches and disproportionately makes the poor poorer. And, with DraftKings and FanDuel, two massively popular purveyors of what’s known as daily fantasy football, offering gambling on professional sports in all but name.
Plus, who are we kidding: If you want to bet on a game, it’s long been easy enough to find a taker, with basically no fear of getting arrested.
But even given all those outlets for betting, there are profound social and economic consequences of making it fully frictionless for dad — or mom, let’s not be sexist — to put the week’s paycheck down on the Eagles plus five-and-a-half.
Problem gambling can destroy families and communities. It is a vice best contained.
So legislators must resist the temptation to put parlors on every corner. Keep sports betting contained to those fully state-sanctioned casinos.
For now, keep the floodgates to online betting shut tight, and don’t let other websites and apps hosted in other states work here.
And invest in robust public education to try to warn families and would-be suckers of the signs and risks of addiction.
It’s not just bettors who, dreaming of money at the end of the rainbow, make awful decisions. Legislators salivating over gambling-related tax revenues, and eager to please the multi-billiondollar pro sports leagues, are just as susceptible to the siren song of easy money.