A better bet

Sports betting ruins lives. An activity that’s no more than a lark for millions who know their limits is a plague for hundreds of thousands already struggling to pay the bills, who wrongly think their magic ticket to prosperity will come on any given Sunday.

Which is why we remain strenuous principled objectors to New York legalizing gambling on games via computers and smartphones. Sportsbooks are now restricted to the premises of money-losing upstate casinos; putting the ability to plunk down hundreds or thousands on covering the spread or the over-under at the tips of millions of fingertips will get countless people hooked on the false promise of big winnings. That isn’t worth tens or even hundreds of millions in tax revenue, not even when it means cash stays here rather than floating over the river to Jersey.

But now that Gov. Cuomo, son of a man who rightly opposed expanding gambling, is throwing his weight in the new budget behind what’s euphemistically called mobile gaming, the smart money says it’ll come to pass. Cuomo says it’ll be run like the state runs the lottery, with government claiming most revenue.

If this is going to happen, it must happen responsibly.

One: Reserve a big cut of the revenue generated to target and help problem gamblers. A 2006 study suggested New York may have 300,000 such individuals; there’s been no assessment since. You can’t fix such a problem with eyes closed to it.

Two: Build in strict limits so that gamblers can’t immediately double down. Bartenders are legally barred from pouring already-blitzed patrons their umpteenth shot. Same rule should apply here.

Three: Work hard to ensure that out-of-their-depth youngsters can’t participate — the legal betting age here is 21 — and strictly regulate advertising to bar irresponsible claims.

Make the best of a bad bet.