Sports Betting Opponents Try Mopping Water Off Legalized Gambling Beachhead
There will be no un-ringing the bell that launched legalize sports gambling in America. So, what is the next play for folks who don’t like legalized sports betting in America
It is a real shame Sisyphus was punished by ancient Greek mythology to rolling that boulder almost to the top of the hill every day in Hades for all eternity. That poor guy would have totally had it made in anti-gambling advocacy these days as an expert in perpetual futility.
With the bonkers story of Los Angeles Dodger superstar Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter being fired and investigated for allegedly swindling millions of dollars from his charge to pay gambling debts, timed with the start of the NCAA basketball tournament which is one of the biggest betting events in America, some anti-sports gambling folks think they have themselves a moment to roll back sports betting.
They are fooling themselves.
Since the Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that struck down federal bans on state authorized sports betting, what always has been going on in the shadows has exploded into a $10 billion industry and cultural phenomenon. The National Football League, the behemoth of American sports, has data now on the growing audience for professional football watching even bad games to the end coinciding with the legalization of betting. The wink-wink nudge-nudge “office pools” of definitely not gambling but throwing your money in to win more money March Madness stuff can now be done on an app on your phone. No longer confined to the massive sports books in Vegas casinos, folks can bet on anything from major sports teams to hot dog eating contests in the palm of their hand in an ever-growing list of states.
Ever since that SCOTUS ruling, states have had to individually set their laws, and to date 38 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing some form of sports betting, 29 of those allowing it online. Not counted in those states is California, Georgia, and Texas, which as Forbes points out are “large potential markets for the online betting industry – but so far they have fallen short. California and Texas combined account for nearly 21% of the U.S. population. Regarding population, the largest legal sports betting market is New York.”
By some estimates one in five Americans have placed a wager on some type of sport. Most folks who follow such things expect that number to grow.
In short, there will be no un-ringing the bell that launched legalize sports gambling in America. Even if something like the Ohtani situation exploded into a full-blown Pete Rose situation, and there is no evidence right now that is the case, the truth is media commentators and sports talking heads will care about it much more than the average person does who might throw a few dollars down on a Dodger game or basketball tournament flier without really knowing the ins and outs of gambling.
In a plot twist, two of the new giants in online sports betting, DraftKings and FanDuel, sense some of this opposition but are using it to their own advantage. Both companies first found footing as online fantasy sports outfits before moving into online sportsbooks and are now using the same playbook ran against them for years to try and edge out the competition that is coming behind them.
From Reason:
Years ago, brick-and-mortar casinos lobbied to ban online fantasy sports, viewing them as a direct threat to their businesses, similar to how online retailers challenge big-box stores. But now, the Sports Betting Alliance is using the same legal playbook that once threatened its operations against its smaller competitors.
Predatory lobbying is the ugliest form of what business experts call “nonmarket strategy”—trying to gain market advantage outside of market mechanisms. Businesses naturally dislike competition; most businesses would prefer to be a monopoly, even if it means stifling innovation and consumer choice. More competition, after all, means lower market share, revenue, and prices. Often, CEOs know that the best way to compete is not to compete at all, but instead get the government to outlaw competition. They will advocate for regulations or taxes under the guise of public interest when, in fact, they aim to benefit themselves.
State-imposed bans on online fantasy sports betting will not eliminate these games. Instead, they will ensure that companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings enjoy a duopoly on online sports betting in the United States. When states prohibit competition, they only funnel consumer spending toward industry giants. They are being played for suckers.
So, what is the next play for folks who don’t like legalized sports betting in America, who are clearly the minority of folks?
Usually what happens when folks can’t get what they want is they change gears and demand the government “DO SOMETHING” about whatever tickle they have in their teacup. Some of the folks who helped fight – and by fight we mean profit greatly from – bringing down big tobacco have set their sights on the gambling industry through legislation, specifically the speed and information processes that online gambling not only unitizes but requires to process thousands of bets per second. Others are working at using another tool of governmental persuasion, taxation, to affect changes in online sports gambling.
Another approach targets folks more on the cultural angle of sports betting, calling for reigning in increasing barrage of gambling advertisements. About the time the US Supreme Court was opening the floodgates of gambling and gambling advertising in America, Italy’s “Decreto Dignità (Dignity Decree) prohibited all TV, radio, press and internet gambling marketing” in that sport mad country. While a full-on advertising ban is not unheard of—cigarette ads on tv and radio were banned in America in 1971– such a move would doubtless have to wind its way through the court system on 2nd Amendment grounds. Still, the NFL makes a point to limit and regulate gambling advertisements during games, and there could be pressure on other sports leagues to do the same. Doubtless someone will also try to regulate such things legislatively.
Then again, maybe that cigarette and big tobacco model of advocacy-lawfare-settlement money is the one to watch for. Someone will no doubt start pushing that gambling is a public health threat just like big tobacco was, with all the lawsuits, lobbying, and so forth to go with it. The problem is, the more gambling – sports betting and otherwise – is widespread, legitimate, and mainstream, the less shenanigans around it. While there are inarguably downsides to gambling with folks who can’t self-regulate and self-control financially or emotionally, any type of prohibition movement would just drive them back into the shadows, not eliminate the problems that started within before being exposed outwardly by the vice of gambling.
Folks point to the Pete Rose hot mess of being banned from baseball for betting on games while participating in the games in 1989. Fair enough, but a lot has changed since 1989. Since the NFL has embraced gambling, it has swung a very heavy hammer against any player found to be betting on football. With more and more eyes on the games, the idea of rigging anything and getting away with it is ridiculously small. Legalizing gambling also incentives leagues and everyone else involved not to kill the multi-billion-dollar golden goose with some stupid scheme that would stop people from actively throwing money at them.
Even in that there is a lesson from the Pete Rose saga. Rose was initially banned from baseball for gambling, but he was kept out of baseball for being a contemptible jackass to just about everyone and anyone involved in trying to redeem him back into the game and publics good graces. Look for the companies and leagues to work to make sports gambling as inviting and friendly looking as possible. Look for opponents to nibble around the edges on things like advertising and public health worries about addition. But mostly look for the money to keep flowing, because sports betting is not only here to stay, but is going to become the eternal companion of consuming and being involved in sports in America for a whole lot of the sports fan public.
Playing the odds, mostly losing, trying again anyway, day after day. Maybe Sisyphus is the perfect spokesman for online sports betting after all. The folks who think sports betting is going to not be popular certainly will find themselves forever rolling a rock up an unscalable hill. Whatever Sisyphus’s tagline for the commercial would be, it has got to be better than those DraftKings and FanDuel ads.
Nobody could possibly like those just for the sake of liking them, degenerate gamblers or not. Right?