Captain Obvious
A big story came across the sports wire in the past week as we saw the uncovering of a gambling ring and a couple of NBA personalities at the heart of the scandal.
……are we really shocked though ????
It has been a number of years now since legalized gambling has become a fixture in our society. It has only been a scant few since professional sports decided to jump in bed with any and all gambling sites.
Now, almost every stadium, arena, or park has ads covering all parts of the facades, when just a few years ago that would have been criminal: “Promote gambling? We would never!” Wait—you mean we can make money? Well, that’s a different story. Not only at the venues, but in our faces while watching sports on any channel at any time of the day: “Please gamble. We don’t care if you have the money—we’ll even start you with a few bucks.” On anything, by the way—the major sports, car racing, horses as always, everything! Shit, you can probably get a bet down on an Olympic event now—the former cathedral of clean living.
How, you ask, is it possible that a professional athlete could ever possibly need the money? Why would he risk his reputation and, more importantly, break laws? Oh, now my naïve one, simple—enough is never enough. Now, I’m not saying that gambling problems are restricted to professional sports; on the contrary, college athletics has been overrun as well. A recent Supreme Court ruling will allow D1 college athletes to bet on sports—not their own, but all others. Phew… that will have no problems, I’m sure.
These kids are not only getting showered with praise from grammar school but with enormous sums of money and, with it all, advice that is usually not in their best interests. It all adds up to problems that were there before it was legalized, but now it’s so easy that it’s only a matter of time before other issues arise. I leave you with this: the recent NBA scandal involving organized crime, game fixing, and assorted other criminal activity may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Hopefully, we won’t be questioning a dropped fly ball in a baseball game, a winning touchdown pass dropped, missed free throws, double faults in a tennis match, a missed penalty kick in—omg—a World Cup match, or any other questionable act that affects the outcome of a game. But as long as the money keeps flowing in, anything can happen.
