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Summary: The month of March is known for two things: Saint Patrick's Day and March Madness. The phenomenon of 64 college basketball teams battling it out for the top spot in the NCAA tournament is met with extreme amounts of illegal gambling. It is estimated that this year the total amount of money bet is $10 billion dollars, with only a third of this coming from legal means in Nevada. Geoff Freeman, the CEO of American Gaming association attributed the illegal betting to be not practical and works against the country as a whole stating "The failed federal ban on sports betting has created an illegal, unregulated sports betting market that offers zero consumer protections and generates zero revenue for state and tribal governments."
Analysis: Making a bracket is part of many American's experience with watching the NCAA tournament as it makes them more invested in teams that they may not have an outside attachment to, making every game important to their brackets success. From a marketing standpoint this is a great way for stations to pull in viewers as they would be drawn to games that they would not necessarily be interested in. Betting seems to be inevitable and to not address the issue in a reasonable manner by providing easier legal ways of betting they are perpetuating the issue. Through legalization the government would better able to monitor the betting and could provide ways of mitigating the issues associated with betting.
Questions:
1) Should betting for amateur sports be legalized?
2) Is betting morally just?
3) Who do you have winning the tournament? =)
5 comments:
I don't see what's wrong with betting on sports games. I think that even if it is kept illegal, it is inevitable that people will continue to do it because there is no way of monitoring or enforcing new laws against betting efficiently. I don't think betting is not morally just, it just isn't the most moral thing though.. Anyways, although it would be difficult, I think that in order for the government to better monitor the trade, betting on sports should be legalized.
Betting seriously needs to be legalized in this nation. I understand that it means that there can be addictions, but then again people addicted to a ton of things that are legal, and the issue of addiction is a whole separate discussion (I mean it's not like video games are becoming illegal). There's already gambling in Vegas and a crapload of other places, why is sports betting so bad? Legalizing it gives more leeway for the state to regulate and make money off of it, so really I think it should be done.
I don't get why betting is not legal in this nation. There is already this "black market" of illegal gambling and cracking down on it will make that industry grow. If you legalize it, you not only give a chance for those governments to make money off of it, kind of like the lottery, but you can easily eliminate these illegal betting activities. I, personally, do not have any problems with it.
I had Villanova over UNC in the Natty.
Also, RIP anyone who had Virginia, aka the Washington Capitals of college basketball, winning the national championship in their bracket.
The debate over the legalization of anything usually centers around tax revenue that could be possible from government oversight, the ability for the government to regulate and monitor more of the people who participate, and the fact that people do it anyway. Those were the arguments for legal alcohol during the prohibition debates and marijuana currently. Those two things also had more downsides, however, and as gambling does not really have any direct health risks, I would expect that gambling would be legal throughout the country before alcohol and marijuana. I'm not sure why it is not, but it could be due to conservative beliefs about morality that are a bit outdated.
Also, let's not talk about our brackets after those upsets.
While I don't think that gambling is morally wrong, I fully understand why it is illegal. It is highly addictive and cause lead many people to thousands of dollars in gambling debts. It makes sense that a government would ban this practice as legalizing it could lead to a population with gambling debt, and the weight of gambling debt and student debt combined would be immeasurable.
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