I can't tell you how shocked I was to learn that some folks are actually placing bets on sporting events. I identify with the slimy police inspector in "Casablanca," who purported to be shocked after discovering that Rick (Humphrey Bogart) was operating a backroom casino in his popular nightclub. After all, if we can't trust Bogie, who can we trust?
As fellow columnist John L. Smith wrote last week, "I can see why you wouldn't want to legalize sports betting in America. It sends the wrong message. It's just too notorious an activity to regulate. (And) if you legalize sports betting, what would we next be asked to embrace - casino gambling and state-run lotteries?" Shocking!
"It's better to keep sports betting illegal," Smith added, "if only to give NHL (National Hockey League) assistant coaches and bored hockey wives something to do in their spare time." He was referring to Operation Slap Shot, an undercover New Jersey State Police sting operation that ensnared the assistant coach of the Phoenix Coyotes and the wife of Phoenix coach and hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky in what Sports Illustrated called "a bizarre netherworld whose axis was a big-money betting ring." The assistant coach, Rick Tocchet, has been charged with promoting gambling, money laundering and conspiracy and Gretzky's high-rolling trophy wife, former Playboy centerfold Janet Jones, is a material witness. And so it goes in the squeaky clean sports world.
Columnist Smith exposed the hypocrisy of professional football, which turns a blind eye to widespread gambling in the ranks while refusing to let Las Vegas buy advertising time during Super Bowl Sunday. "We in Nevada can have a good laugh at everyone's expense," Smith wrote. "Nevada regularly takes hits from politicians, the NCAA and the commissioners of various professional sports over its unique position as the only state with legalized event wagering .... When it comes to sex, violence and beer guzzling, the NFL doesn't blush. But 'Las Vegas' remains a four-letter word."
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman piled on by asserting that "there were more bets placed at the stupid Pro Bowl in Honolulu than in all the race and sports books around the world. The idea that they won't allow the mention of Las Vegas in association with the NFL is pure hypocrisy." You tell 'em, Oscar!
S.I. opined that "the proximity of hockey's greatest player (Gretzky) to a betting ring that police say generated $1.7 million in 1,000 bets over a recent 40-day period is troubling, especially for a league that continues to maintain a breezy gambling culture despite a number of embarrassing situations in recent years." And that's only the tip of the iceberg because sports betting is a virtual epidemic on college campuses throughout the nation.
Reno Gazette-Journal oddsmaker Dan Hinxman told the truth when he wrote that professional sports commissioners and college presidents, coaches and athletic directors are living a lie "if they think for a second that athletes within their domains aren't betting on their own sports .... If there are priests who molest children and cops who sell cocaine, there are athletes who try to turn a buck on their own abilities. Like the game itself, the odds are stacked against purity." That's the sad reality of the situation.
UNR athletic director Cary Groth claims that sports betting is under control at the Reno campus. "I think we do a good job," she told Hinxman. "I don't think we have to do as much education here because gambling is all around us." Well maybe, but that's not how former Wolfpack basketball player Eathan O'Bryant remembers it. "I didn't have a clue," he admitted. "No one from the university told me about gambling ...." O'Bryant said that he bet on baseball and college football while at UNR from 1993 to 1995, but never on his own sport because he had friends who were involved in a basketball betting scandal at Arizona State.
Nevertheless, it's been legal to bet on UNR and UNLV games in Nevada since 2001. That's an ongoing temptation for college students and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's a lot more gambling going on among student athletes in Reno and Las Vegas than Ms. Groth is willing to admit, or knows about. And my guess is that a few of them are betting on their own sports in this gambling-addicted state.
As everyone knows, the well-known Peter Rose Rule decrees that any athlete, owner or team executive who bets on his or her own sport should be banned for life. Fair enough, but only the National Football League prohibits its players and team executives from betting on other sports. Obviously, the NBA (basketball), NHL (hockey) and Major League Baseball should follow suit because 20-year-old millionaires will always find new and exciting ways to spend their money, and sports betting is a natural. It certainly was (and is) for NBA legend Michael Jordan, who once admitted paying $165,000 (chump change for him) to settle golf and poker debts. That was before a former "friend" wrote a tell-all book claiming that His Airness once lost $1.25 million during a frenzied 10-day period on the golf course.
So are we shocked to learn that gambling goes hand-in-hand with professional and amateur sports? No, and the professional leagues should drop their hypocritical treatment of Las Vegas. Now that 48 states permit some form of legal gambling, it's time to recognize reality and lift the ban against the Silver State and Sin City. Because, let's face it, gambling isn't nearly as sinful as it used to be when Nevada was the only state in the nation with legal casino gaming. Those days are long gone. Good riddance!
n Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, is a semi-retired journalist who worked for the Nevada gaming control agencies in the 1960s.