Will Legal Sports Gambling Lead To Unpaid NCAA Athletes Fixing Games?

Mookie Bets7 years ago

Okay, so the ban on sports gambling has been lifted by the Supreme Court, and states like New Jersey and Delaware should have legal books up and running this summer. There is a God. Now, we have to see the implications this ruling has on all major sports. Every organization has commented thus far, and some of them are trying to get a cut of the action.

From Yourerie.com:

The NBA and Major League Baseball have argued in recent months for a 1 percent cut of proceeds if legalized sports betting expands across the country, saying part of that money would be needed for additional compliance and enforcement efforts within the game.

Leagues are already scrambling to get a slice of the legal gambling pie, but their justification is a complete sham. They want to use the money to enforce compliance within the league, hence make sure teams don’t start fixing games?

I don’t buy it.

Cut the shit and just own up to the fact that you want easy additional revenue for allowing schmucks like myself to lose inordinate amounts of money on your teams. It’s okay. You can take a cut of my losses after I lose on an afternoon baseball game, but don’t act like you need additional funding to make sure the Patriots aren’t covering the spread on purpose because Tom Brady needs more money to feed his children.

Professional athletes have too much on the line to get caught shaving points. Ridiculous contracts, endorsement deals, and integrity should be enough to keep Steph Curry from missing 3-pointers on purpose. But one organization’s players have a lot less to lose: the NCAA.

College athletes have been shafted more times than a $10 hooker. I’m not talking about major universities like Alabama, at which all the players drive new cars and are treated like royalty; I’m talking about mid-major schools whose players travel around the country and work a full-time job for their university. Athletes that go to schools like Marshall, Western Kentucky, or Temple University rake in a ton of revenue for their schools yet take in minimal compensation.

So that being said, what’s stopping a basketball player on Troy from taking $3,000 to miss a few shots and make sure their team doesn’t cover the spread? What if that kid needed the money to help out his family? It’s not like the university is going to help him out.

My point is college athletes are vulnerable. They have a lot less to lose than pro athletes, especially when only a small percentage of them go on to play at the next level. The biggest kicker is that $10 billion a year is bet on March Madness, and even if the NCAA ends up getting a portion of that, the athletes almost certainly won’t see a dime.

So will college athletes fix games because of this ruling? I’m not sure, but we’re more likely to see it happen in the NCAA than anywhere else..

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