Anyone who is at all surprised that with the increased legalization of sports gambling has come a rise of investigations into athletes and coaches tampering with games and sharing insider info is either oblivious to human nature or willfully ignorant. I say that not as an insult, but rather a recognition that making sports gambling as easy as ordering food delivery on Grubub would bring with it all kinds of negative and potentially illegal consequences.
NCAA President and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is aware of that. Which is why he has just called for a ban on prop bets in college sports. Prop bets are where people bet on things besides the final score of the game. Like which team shoots more free throws. Or whether a player makes more than five three-pointers. It’s only limited by the human imagination, and it allows compulsive gamblers to have endless action on any single game – kind of like trying to ride three roller coasters at once. It also is the easiest for any one person to manipulate, both physically and emotionally. Throwing a game can be tough for a long list of reasons, even by a star player. Taking fewer three-pointers isn’t that hard.
Perhaps that’s why we’ve seen investigations and firings at several universities the past couple of years, both players and coaches. That includes an Alabama baseball coach giving away insider info and some funny gambling patterns on Temple basketball, which is often how they catch it. We also had a case of Iowa football players betting on their own games, something that’s much, much easier when done legally on a mobile device as opposed to using a shady illicit campus bookie. While sunlight may be the best disinfectant, it’s also quite illuminating. And thus far, Charlie Baker does not like what he sees.
There were a lot of reasons given for legalizing sports gaming outside of Vegas. Some of them are libertarian in nature, that government shouldn’t restrict our freedoms, and so on. Some of them deal with hypocrisy, like why are some forms of gambling legal and not others, and why is it okay in Vegas but not New York. Some of it is the theory that legalization will help curtail illegal gambling and the influence of criminal organizations overseeing the business. And some is basic economics – both to raise government revenue and for networks to drive attention to television sports if increasingly because they’ve got skin in the game. Legalized gambling makes strange bedfellows, from governors who want to win elections to TV executives who want to keep their job. That’s how gambling went from a non-starter to a household pastime.
I’m reticent to moralize too much here, especially because I’d quickly reveal my own hypocrisy. Not that I gamble on sports, because I don’t other than the occasional office pool, but because I’m as guilty as anyone of enjoying the largely unpaid labor of college sports. So even if gambling isn’t my sports vice, I’m far from innocent in the larger commodification and exploitation of elite college athletes.
So instead of a morality play, I’ll instead make a business argument. And to be clear, I don’t think sports gambling should have been legalized, at least when it comes to college sports. By opening the flood gates of sports gaming, what the government ultimately did was two things, beyond generating income. They compartmentalized the game beyond its entirety, and they made largely unpaid athletes pawns in a much larger game. It may be true that pro athletes, who are largely highly compensated adults, aren’t easily bought – although we have seen recent examples. The same is not true of most college athletes. And say what you want about NIL revenue or even models for compensation. There are just way, way too many college athletes, most of whom will see meager dollars at best, to keep trouble at bay. And remember, these are largely 18- to 22-year-olds, a population known for making questionable decisions, now inundated with possible bribes driven by a business they’ve been told is completely okay and, not for nothing, makes other people rich. That is the Pandora’s Box we’re dealing with. It’s not even fair to call it unintended consequences. Because it was like an oncoming train in the distance for anyone who cared to look.
Will Congress ban prop bets in college sports? Charlie Baker is a political operative, so it’s possible. If not, I expect things to only get worse. Just don’t say you weren’t warned.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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