UPDATE — Comment Rescue: Open Questions on Ramifications of Sports Betting

Filed in National by on August 25, 2009

This is from RSmitty, who inexplicably wasn’t going to comment today:

Sports gambling in DE aside, this really has me burning. How did an injunction hearing before a panel of three circuit court judges suddenly turn into a legal decision on the entire case, that was supposed to be heard later? I obviously don’t have a legal background, so how in the hell did that happen?

When will the NCAA lift their playoff-hosting ban against DE schools?
When will the NCAA ENACT their playoff-hosting ban against NV schools?
When will someone have the balls to challenge the anti-trust exemption of the NCAA?
When will the NCAA lift their athletes above a poverty-level lifestyle, given the revenue stream they receive via their highly-favorable anti-trust exemptions?

When will the NFL address their LICENSED media affiliates glorifying point spread predictions?
When will the NFL pull their LICENSING of their team logos to various state lotteries for $20 scratch off tickets?

When will the NBA address the owner of the Sacramento Kings who also has partial ownership of a Las Vegas casino?

Ungh. Freaking g-damned hypocrites!

I don’t know how to answer his first question — it certainly seems that there is a fair amount of surprise at this decision and I haven’t dug into this to find out why. Perhaps DD can chime in here.

What would be really fun is if the State could figure a way to challenge the NCAA on some of these questions, which (again) I have no idea if they have standing to do. Much less having the money for legal costs.

Clearly, though, ramping back the bets to parlays only blows a pretty big hole in the budget gap that betting was supposed to fix. And, frankly, I always wondered how much revenue you really could expect from this — how much repeat business is there in driving to one of our racinos to place a bet? Why not stay in your neighborhood or office and bet with your local bookie? In any event, I’m very curious as to how the budget gets papered over AND I’m very curious to know how soon the racino lobbyists get fired up to start agitating for the State to cover more of their costs for this thing.

UPDATE: RSmitty notes in the comments that he posted his questions over at Allan Loudell’s blog and he, Allan and LG have been having an interesting discussion of the state of play. Make sure you go over and look. Allan seems to be trying to get NCAA people to be interviewed, so if you post some questions there, perhaps Allan can get you an answer.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (9)

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  1. I’d like to give a bit of a shout to you and Allan Loudell (the link is to his blog entry on this and his participation, as well as a comment from Geek) for picking up my conversation on this. Unfortunately, it does appear the points I made that more-or-less highlight the hypocrisy of the leagues will probably remain under the topic of “fodder,” but they are topics that should always preface any conversation that involves finances, competition, or morality in relation to any of those leagues!

  2. on a side-note and barely related note (only because you mentioned it), I am trying to not comment during the day so I can be more …er… focused! Yeah, that’s it! Point is, don’t take it as a slight, because it isn’t. I’m trying to make myself a better man so I can become a better commenter and increase the value of this blog! Wait, don’t take that as a slight, either! πŸ˜‰

  3. anonone says:

    How did an injunction hearing before a panel of three circuit court judges suddenly turn into a legal decision on the entire case, that was supposed to be heard later?

    Because there was no dispute by either party on the facts of the case, all it required was a ruling on the law.

  4. cassandra_m says:

    I just added a link to Allan Loudell’s blog post that Smitty references here. It is a good discussion and you should check it out.

    Thanks, Smitty!

    And no worries about the commenting thing. I can go a few days without commenting or posting for the same reason.

  5. I thought Smitty might be engaging in a silent protest against the blog.

  6. cassandra_m says:

    I think that if Smitty was protesting this blog it certainly WOULD NOT be silent….;)

  7. That’s the oxymoron (emphasis is NOT on moron… πŸ˜† ) that is me. My silent protests are anything but silent!!!

  8. Joanne Christian says:

    From day one this girl said “no sports betting”–the up-front costs alone of fighting this will far outweigh any boondoggle venture the state deludes themselves into thinking is a golden goose. Better to look for real jobs gang, and not the industry of the idle. Want a betting tip? Cut your losses now–get out of this–and bring real jobs, real industry, and real money to this state. You can make book on that.

  9. callerRick says:

    They wanted an expeditious disposition; they got it.