Sports gambling a field of broken dreams

Ninety-nine years ago, the future of Major League Baseball was on the line after the infamous Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the World Series in a gambling scandal. Thus, the first commissioner of baseball was appointed to restore and preserve the integrity of the game.

Baseball’s integrity has been challenged in more recent history by, for example, steroid use, but gambling scandals have been limited to the likes of Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport and blocked from the Hall of Fame just as “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was for his alleged role in the 1919 series, which inspired a sportswriter’s timeless phrase “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”

Integrity is a lofty word, yet consider how it is being transmogrified as state legislators, including those in Connecticut, brace for the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will open the floodgates to legal sports gambling.

Representatives for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association told the Connecticut General Assembly’s Public Safety Committee the leagues would insist on a 1 percent “integrity fee” per bet, explaining that the income would be spent to ensure enforcement.

They leagues are not the only two of a kind. Others will come, looking for a piece of the action.

It’s not easy to travel on high moral ground when you’re broke, and Connecticut is busted. But state government should not have pliable morality.

If it becomes acceptable to gamble on the outcome of defined sports, why not bet the odds on, say, political outcomes as well?

For that matter, what’s the harm in letting youth sports take a piece of the action?

Gambling is an addiction and preys on those putting money on the table. It’s another case where Connecticut income would come at the expense of residents.

House Democratic leaders were quick to craft a bill to start legalizing sports betting in Connecticut, making the legislative committee’s forum a welcome discourse.

As House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said, “We want to be competitive with other states” that are also waiting for the Supreme Court to issue a decision on the “Christie v. NCAA” case that aims to repeal New Jersey’s ban on sports wagering at casinos and racetracks.

The future of sports gambling would hardly be limited to such stereotypical haunts, moving rapidly to mobile devices. The lure of the coin can be hypnotic, leading lawmakers to stray from the harder work of cutting spending and keeping employee benefits in check.

The laws needed to shield a state’s integrity would range from creating an appropriate licensing protocol to defining the range of sports and setting a cutoff age for gamblers. There’s also that niggling matter of trying to help the addicts, like a bar cutting off an alcoholic with car keys.

All that said, many lawmakers just won’t be able to resist this fat pitch. Say it ain’t so.

It’s not easy to travel on high moral ground when you’re broke, and Connecticut is busted. But state government should not have pliable morality.