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On Legalizing Sports Betting and Online Gambling

Living in Las Vegas, I understand the power of the gambling dollar. The huge amounts of tax revenue from the casinos is what keeps the state of Nevada income tax free, and what keeps the city of Las Vegas’ heart pumping. Now, Atlantic City wants to get a piece of the almighty sports dollar, and it looks like they might get their wish.

For as long as gambling has been allowed in the United States, Nevada was the only state that had legal sports betting. Illegal sports betting, however, was raking in billions around the rest of the country. Now, with the rise of online gambling, it’s becoming more and more clear, especially to lawmakers, that sports betting is not going away.

For the United States, there are two options, prohibition or acceptance. If you continue to prohibit sports betting, it will not keep people from doing it. If you accept it, you can regulate and tax it and profit off of it. The same goes for online gambling, particularly poker.

Current Affairs

New Jersey’s General Assembly passed a bill last week by a 58-17 count that would at the very least begin the process of trying to bring sports betting to Atlantic City.

According to politickerNJ.com:

“The measure would allow New Jersey voters to decide whether the state should permit sports betting. Such a ballot question could appear on an election ballot as early as next November.

If approved by voters, licensed casinos would be able to accept in-person wagers solely on professional sports. Betting on amateur sports, such as collegiate football, would remain illegal. The bill would make the Casino Control Commission responsible for overseeing sports-betting activities.”

The fact of the matter is that sports betting is already a significant part of American’s lives. If properly regulated, it can be a very rewarding industry for the government to make legal.

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that the United States would stand to make between $8.7 billion and $42.8 billion in tax revenues in the first ten years of legalized gambling, including online gambling.

If New Jersey can get this through the feds, and legalize any form of sports betting in New Jersey, it should open the doors to other states joining them, which will in turn open the doors to legalized online gambling.

One of the biggest hurdles this bill and any others is going to have to get over is the mega-industry known as the NFL. The NFL tries to pretend that it’s top priorities include “keeping” gambling illegal. Yet, their entire league is based on point spreads and injury reports. If you think the injury reports are for fantasy football players, you my friend, are living in a fantasy world.

The NFL likes to think it is the most popular sport because of it’s football. It is the most popular sport only because of gambling and in recent years fantasy football. That’s a fact. If the NFL wants to try to make gambling on it’s league illegal, they’ll be sprinting back to Las Vegas within five years to try to get their ratings back. Trust me, if there is no gambling on the NFL, there is no billion dollar television deal. The sooner the NFL accepts that, the sooner we’ll be able to get this issue worked out.

From the NFL’s attorney David H. Remes: “It’s bad policy because it turns human players into roulette chips with the sanction of the state.”

Really? You’re going to complain that gambling turns players into roulette chips, when the league is letting players live excruciatingly painful, short-lived lives due to their severely inadequate post-career care. Offensive lineman are dying at a young age at an alarming rate, and many players are confined to wheelchairs and battling terrible drug addictions while the league turns their backs on them. But it’s the gamblers that are hurting the players. No really. Whatever. Try watching Real Sports now and then if you want to see what the NFL does to it’s players.

More Legislated Morality

The idea of making gambling illegal in this country is asinine to begin with. I understand the government’s role is sometimes to protect people who otherwise may harm themselves, but it should never be at the expense of the rest of society. Come to Las Vegas on any given weekend, or go to Atlantic City or Foxwoods, or any other legal gaming establishment and tell me if people are just walking around being immoral and going bankrupt.

The fact is, for many, gambling is a fun night out. For others, it’s a legitimate job. And for the industry in general, it’s a money printing, job making machine.

A few Democrats, namely Barney Frank and Jim McDermott are trying to pass online gambling bills to legalize it in the States. McDermott gave a copy of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report on potential revenue to all members of Congress this week in order to gain support for his bill that, like Frank’s would regulate and tax online gambling in the United States.

Let’s be honest — politics aside, this country needs the added tax revenue without raising income taxes. There are tried and true ways to help a struggling economy, and rule number one is put money in the hands of people who will spend it. Regulating and taxing Internet gambling would bring billions of dollars to the government without having to raise income taxes a single dollar. And no one would have to pay a dime if they didn’t want to.

Making gambling illegal because you don’t like it is unfair. As someone who earns their money, you have the right to spend it any way you’d like to. If you want to play poker, a game of skill, not chance, then you should be able to do that. If you think I’m going to spend all of my savings and end up broke, then that’s my problem, not yours.

Morality should never have to be, or be allowed to be legislated. That’s not the free nation that we live in. We live in a nation where individual freedom and liberty are supposed to be the nation’s top priorities. I’m an educated man, and I understand how governments work. But I don’t think that over-gambling is something that I need to be protected from. Some people just lump gambling in with all other “sins” like drinking, tobacco use, pornography, and on down the slippery slope to doing crystal meth and robbing banks.

Take Mike Huckabee, for instance. The same guy who may or may not have been made by Conan, Colbert or Stewart. He has promised that as an elected official, he will veto any bill that comes across his desk that would legalize gambling in any form. This coming from a man who tithes to his church what I would guess is a healthy amount of money, but is against me spending my own money how I want to. I consider tithing to be as wasteful as gambling. From someone with religious beliefs such as mine, I argue that I would at least have a chance to get something back for my money. But I digress…

The Future of Gambling

Gambling is not going away. Las Vegas is going nowhere. Atlantic City is going nowhere. Online gambling is here to stay. The only option for the United States is to catch up with the rest of the world, and regulate and tax online gambling. The amount of revenue is far too much to be ignored, and it’s the best way to protect Americans, who currently are at risk of getting screwed by shifty online casinos.

There are multiple bills being floated around Congress that would legalize online poker, sports betting and casinos. These bills being passed are good for the United States. Whether you like gambling or not, this is the right thing to do. You let me worry about my money, and you worry about yours, and in the meantime, tax revenues will make this country a fortune, enough so that income taxes can be lowered, and the budget can get balanced.

Gambling is here to stay. This country just has to make the decision as to whether or not to get on board and do what’s right.

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Links and sources for this article:

Where the Candidates Stand on Online Poker
iGamingBusiness: Regulation Quantified by McDermott
ESPN: Assembly Mulls Whether to Put Betting Before Jersey’s Voters

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