Gambling In Professional Sports

Superior Essays
The public gestures by the sports leagues are simply for show as they haven’t taken any significant measures which could actually curb illegal gambling. They could easily block media access from any newspaper, website, or TV station that publishes or references point spreads. However, the days of subtle references to the point spread by Jimmy “the Greek” are long over. Point spreads are openly discussed on TV and published by nearly every newspaper. Likewise, ESPN radio advertises sports handicapping services. That network also profits from gambling through their broadcasts of poker tournaments and advertisements from Bet365, a U.K. based bookmaker that accepts wagers on all the major U.S. sports. In addition, ESPN, a subsidiary of Disney, …show more content…
soccer team Manchester United, which has legal bookmaking locations within its stadium. In fact, Manchester United’s official gaming partner, bwin.com, offers gambling on all of the major U.S. sports; although, they don’t accept American clients. That same type of scenario exists with Stan Kroenke (owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and St. Louis Rams) and John Henry (owner of the Boston Red Sox) with their respective English soccer teams, Arsenal and Liverpool FC, and official gaming partners, Betsson and …show more content…
It’s now just a matter of semantics. Some lawmakers have challenged the legitimacy of the daily fantasy sports leagues, but those companies have argued that their business model involves a game of skill. Oddly enough, Ryan Rodenberg, an assistant law professor at Florida State University and ESPN contributor, discovered through Freedom of Information Act requests that two highly unlikely proponents have supported the same conclusion. Loretta Lynch, the current U.S. Attorney General, declared that sports gambling is a game of skill in 2013, while serving as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. In regards to United States v. DiCristina, Lynch wrote that sports gambling requires “substantial skill” by noting how Billy Walters’ picks affect movement with the point spread. In an even more stunning discovery, Rodenberg found that Covington & Burling also made similar arguments during their 2003 case against the Delaware sports lottery. Covington & Burling, on behalf of the sports leagues, asserted that sports gambling is a game of skill, therefore the state wouldn’t be able to offer sports betting within the confines of a lottery system. Wow, that means that the DOJ and the sports leagues indirectly admitted that this whole saga has simply been all for

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