Major League Sports and Gambling

Most of the major sports associations, like the NFL, work hard to stay away from anything gambling related. According to them, sports betting is bad and leads to corruption. What does that say about the players themselves? You mean to tell me that NFL players, who make millions of dollars, are so corrupt that they would throw their performance for thousands of dollars or more? The NFL won’t even allow commercials for visiting Las Vegas in the Super Bowl—even though Las Vegas only accounts for an estimated 2-5% of all sports betting action annually.

Recently the Boston Red Sox announced plans to sell a lotto scratch card branded for them. The lotto scratch card is loaded with Boston Red Sox logos and will no doubt have Red Sox fans lining up to buy the tickets. This brings up an interesting predicament. How can a professional organization, like Major League Baseball, be against sports betting (see: Pete Rose), but be for a form of gambling that has the worst probability of winning and is basically a cash cow? The probability of losing your money in lotto is almost guaranteed.

Commissioner Bud Selig was adamantly opposed to putting one of the best hitters to ever play the game—Pete Rose—in the hall of fame—even though Pete Rose never bet against his team. Yet, the lotto of all things is ok? Should we now ban every Boston Red Sox player from the hall of fame, if they qualify? Something to think about.