New hurdles ahead, says ex-commish
All of the major sports leagues have been preparing for this day — with, make no mistake, an eye on getting their own pieces of the action — even as they joined the NCAA in fighting this case at the lower judicial levels to protect the so-called integrity of their sports.
What did it tell you that even ahead of the Raiders move to Sin City, the NHL also already has placed a wildly successful expansion franchise in Vegas?
Or that NBA commissioner Adam Silver, as far back as 2014, voiced his support for legalizing sports gambling federally, and all of the leagues already had entered partnerships with fantasy sports companies/websites?
“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court opens the door for states to pass laws legalizing sports betting,” Silver said Monday. “We remain in favor of a federal framework that provides a uniform approach to sports gambling in states that choose to permit it, but we will remain active in ongoing discussions with state legislatures. Regardless of the particulars of any future sports betting law, the integrity of our game remains our highest priority.”
Sports betting, after all, is an estimated $150 billion business, and this ruling should open the floodgates for states to establish their own legalized sports books as a major source of governmental revenue.
Of course, the danger here for the leagues always has been wariness over even the slightest hints of impropriety — which is why the Black Sox, NFL stars Paul Hornung and Alex Karras (both suspended for gambling in 1963), Rose, Donaghy and various college point-shavers were penalized so swiftly and so harshly.
New Jersey residents had voted by roughly a 2-to-1 margin in support of a referendum to legalize sports betting in 2011, and thenGovernor Chris Christie signed a law allowing gambling at the state’s racetracks and casinos. The lengthy legal battle finally reached the Supreme Court last year, with Christie’s replacement, Phil Murphy, inheriting the petition.
Monday’s ruling opens the door for the Garden State and others to move forward immediately, and it has been reported that Monmouth Park Racetrack could be ready to start accepting sports wagers before the end of this month.
Pennsylvania, Mississippi and West Virginia also recently passed laws that would allow sports betting, contingent on SCOTUS invalidating PASPA,. And you can be sure New York and dozens of others will follow. he NFL and its owners, more than the other sports, are set to cha-ching their way to millions upon millions in additional revenue. Just in case you truly believed they were deadset against this sort of thing from the beginning, all in the name of integrity.
TGETTY FORMER Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent presided over the sport in the aftermath of one of its darkest moments, when hit king Pete Rose was found in 1989 to have bet on baseball and Reds games while he was the Cincinnati manager, leading to Charlie Hustle’s lifetime ban from the game.
It was no surprise that Vincent, 79, viewed Monday’s Supreme Court decision to allow sports betting in states with a measure of caution and sadness.
“The American public has decided over and over again that it really wants to bet on whether the sun is going to come up tomorrow,” Vincent told the Daily News. “What this decision does is put sports in a position where it has to confront the reality. But there are three big problems: how do you protect the integrity of these games? Who’s going to decide the rules? What will the rules be?”
While one baseball insider predicted “a giant bonanza for team owners” financially as a result of the ruling, and prominent Pittsburgh sports attorney Jay Reisinger underscored how sports teams may capitalize on integrity fees — the taxing of state gambling revenue — Vincent said there are many concerns that remain unresolved, not the least of which is who will regulate the practice of sports betting.
“Is there going to be a commissioner of gambling?” Vincent asked. “Can players bet? Can you bet on your own team? Can owners bet? Can clubhouse people bet?”
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told The News in an email that pro sports team owners “won’t have that option” of placing bets on their teams.
“We can’t go to sports books and gamble currently,” said Cuban.
The executive director of the MLB Players Association, Tony Clark, sounded a similar cautious tone when he said in a statement Monday that “the realities of widespread sports betting must be addressed urgently and thoughtfully to avoid putting our sport’s integrity at risk as states proceed with legalization.”
MLB’s four-sentence statement on the ruling included the mandate that “our most important priority is protecting the integrity of our games.”
But John Dowd, the Washington attorney and former special counsel to the late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti (Vincent’s predecessor) who authored the report on Rose’s gambling sins, said Monday that allowing anyone to bet on sports legally could lead to a dangerous culture.
“There’s no question that sports betting, like all gambling, can be corrosive and destructive,” Dowd told The News. “It puts people in debt and often times they have to commit crimes to pay the debts. It’s a spiral. If you can afford it, I suppose it’s fine. But gambling always concerns me.
“In Pete’s (Rose) case, he carried enormous debt (with loan sharks),” Dowd added. “(Gambling) puts people in a tough place. The game is vulnerable. You want to be careful people aren’t influenced, particularly those who participate in the game.”
Reisinger, the sports attorney, referenced Boston College and the Univ. of Toledo as schools that have been sullied by point-shaving scandals, and he said that the risk for similar corruption increases when athletes who are paid little or nothing are involved.
“You’re going to have to pay closer attention to betting patterns. I do think that there is an increased risk, especially at the NCAA level. You have a bunch of kids that are unpaid,” said Reisinger. “You hate to say it, but it’s all about the money.”
For players earning a healthy paycheck, Reisinger said it would be in the best interests of the unions who represent them to be “proactive” about getting their members as much of the revenue pie as possible. Reisinger thinks MLB players and the owners could reopen the current collective bargaining agreement to negotiate rules on the matter.
“I think it’s a perfectly smart move for Major League Baseball and the other leagues to seek integrity fees. They are providing the product, why shouldn’t they get a cut of the revenue? But I think the Players Association ought to be proactive in seeking a cut. While Major League Baseball is the host, it doesn’t go off without the players,” said Reisinger.