What are the odds?
I don’t think that DK and FanDuel and BetMGM and all the other books are attempting to influence the outcome of games or prop bets. The more customers they have, the more money they make. If there’s a hint of undue influence by those guys, they’ll lose business.
I do find it interesting that the sportsbooks were the ones who detected the latest scandal.
At least nine sportsbooks in 13 states and one Canadian province detected similar unusual betting activity, according to an email sent by IC360, a firm that monitors the betting market for abnormalities. The gamblers kept betting big against the same teams and winning.
But that’s the whole reason why sports betting is tainted by its very nature. The athletes, who have no stake whatsoever in the gambling, have the constant temptation to make a few bucks by points shaving or influencing a prop bet, etc. And somehow that’s not just something that gets them kicked off the team or out of college, it’s become criminal activity because of the lobbying of the gambling industry to protect the “fairness” of betting. It’s bullshit, and it’s ruining sports.
Yes, exactly. Without a serious sports betting industry, there wouldn’t be any point shaving, because there wouldn’t be any motive to do that.
There’s been point shaving scandals for the last 100 years, the vast majority of which was without a legal sports betting industry.
I’m not saying that these scandals will magically disappear because of the proliferation of legal books, but their presence should make it easier to discover the bad guys, as evidenced by the article I linked.
Are you saying that the players who actually threw the games aren’t criminals? ISTM that if a few of them get prosecuted (with a lot of publicity), then other players might have second thoughts about accepting money to influence the outcome of a game or a prop bet.
I’m saying yes, I’m having a tough time with players making money on the side for an activity they don’t get paid for, or at least didn’t before NIL being a crime. They have no say whatsoever on who bets on their activities, so why should they care if those people lose money based on their activities? To me that’s the fundamental difference between sports gambling and other gambling - at a casino everyone goes in willingly and knowing the rules (theoretically). But sports gambling includes unwilling participants whose activities are thereby restricted.
Studies find that what influences behavior is the odds that you will be caught, much more than the severity of the punishment. Harshly punishing a small number of people is exactly the wrong way to prevent others from doing it.
But if no player accepted money, then there would be no scandal. I’m saying that if the players know there will be serious consequences, then the fear of getting caught might outweigh the temptation of a few bucks.
If there’s enough money on the line, humans will be tempted.
And college athletes, in particular, are grossly underpaid for their labor.
But as has been pointed out, the college jocks are getting paid very little to throw a game.
If the risk is far greater than the reward, then maybe it won’t happen.
It’s painfully obvious that DraftKings and FanDuel and all the other books aren’t going anywhere. Any effort to keep sports betting above board is a good thing.
Eh, if people who engage in sports betting are cheated, and there’s a lot of news about it, maybe they won’t be tempted to bet.
That’s not a great solution, either, but it’s arguably more fair than prosecuting the players.
Anyway, I’m not going to weep that draft kings had to pay a bet that they mispriced. I don’t see them as a helpful company producing a valuable product that i want to protect.
This. There was a similar thread recently, about the Cleveland Guardians players that were involved in gambling IIRC. One of the things discussed was whether or not the house (whether a brick and mortar casino or online sports book) is involved in such things. My contention in that thread is that it makes no sense for the house to be involved. The house makes their money on “the vig”, typically something like the $10 on a $110 to win $100. The house doesn’t benefit from one side or the other winning, unless they did a really bad job in setting the line and one side has a lot more action than the other. Even then, that would be a rare occurrence, not something that happens on a regular basis that would lead to players or coaches at multiple levels in multiple sports throwing games or shaving points for the benefit of the casino.
All gambling-based businesses are unethical, because they all sell an addictive product, and no matter what window dressing they might claim otherwise, their business model is based on maximizing that addiction.
If we, as a society, decide that the harm of addiction is minimized by providing a safe, legal outlet for it, then that outlet should be provided by either the government or a nonprofit, someone who doesn’t have an incentive to make the problem worse.
Though then why is the gambling commission involved? Why wasn’t it a court that decides this and enforces the fair compensation for the plaintiff?
But I’m saying I have major ethical problems making point shaving a crime to protect a totally different industry the players have no stake in or control of. If the NFL or NCAA wants to get into bed with gambling and say if players get caught they get fined/expelled, OK, that’s a matter between the players and their employers. But making it a criminal matter is bullshit, IMHO. I don’t care if it sets an example - it’s a misuse of the justice system to protect a different industry with deep pockets and good lobbyists.
You know, that’s a really good point. If the college wanted to throw kids out who didn’t follow the rules, it if a professional team wants to die a player, that’s very different. I can’t see any reason why cheating at sports should be a legal matter. That sucks.
That’s a pretty broad definition of ethical/unethical, IMO. Obviously, YMMV.
If gambling on sports is legal (which it is, in certain states), then cheating to influence the outcome of a sports game should be illegal.
Nevertheless, we’ve gone rather far afield from my OP. If you think gambling on sports is bad, your mind won’t get changed on the Dope. And neither will mine.
Why though? The cheaters aren’t part of the legalized gambling system. Should this apply to eSports? Should this be true for anything someone can place a legal wager on? If a candidate drops out of a race and there are odds in Vegas on them winning, are they cheating? What about sports leagues that have no Federal oversight?
It’s unrelated to the question of whether gambling is ethical or not. @muldoonthief makes a good point. If I cheat at my job, why should that be a crime?
As in that other thread (it was Chauncey Billups, not the Cleveland Guardians pitchers, that I was thinking about), a lot of these scandals tend to not be about legal gambling operations, professional leagues, or the NCAA, but rather the mafia or other such criminal groups cheating bettors. In such situations, I don’t see any reason to not prosecute them.
Presumably because when the MA Legislature legalized sports gambling 3 years ago they said the MGC would be the arbiter of the rules and make these kinds of decisions. I don’t know if the law allows DK to file a lawsuit now that the MGC has ruled against them, but I doubt the courts would be amused to be dragged into this if the MGC has been given this power by the legislature.