This is a subject that annoys me; the professional sports leagues and the NCAA fighting against legal sports wagering – and often against gambling in general – at every opportunity. They are eager to vilify casinos, gambling and everything else but human nature – although all sports are build on a principle of human nature, competition. At all times and in all places in human history individuals and groups of individuals have competed against each other; and often a by-product of the competition is a wager.
However, regardless of the positions of the associations, the athletes themselves seem hardly aware of gambling dangers, but are fully aware of the very natural condition of competing and wagering on the outcome. There are legendary stories of the betting between athletes on the golf course, on the practice field or any other arena where the compete – we have all heard stories of Michael Jordan for example and his intensity over a simple game of golf. There are also many, many stories of big-name athletes gambling legally in Vegas or Atlantic City – occasionally, like Charles Barkley they admit to, if not an addiction, a problem in controlling their gambling. But they usually see the gambling on games of chance as an extension of their competitive nature.
A story out this week suggests the problem is simply that – competition; the athletes compete as a way of life – they compete in the game and out of the game. And one might suspect that on occasion they make a friendly wager on the outcome of a game – their game, someone else’s game or may be just the willingness of a girl at the bar. Those of us who do not make millions and millions of dollars to play a game that requires a great deal of skill, intensity and desire to win can only guess at the dynamics between players. That is until one basketball player pulls a gun on another basketball player in the locker room over one of those friendly little wagers. The Washington Wizard locker room was the scene of that drama [Sports Illustrated] – makes one really, really curious over the nature and value of that wager doesn’t it?
May be they had made a wager in a legal sports book in Las Vegas and were arguing over who owed what to whom- wait that is not possible – you have to put up the money first in Vegas and only have to present proof of your winning wager to collect. Could they have made the wager with an illegal mob-book and one player is the collector for the mob? No, that doesn’t sound right either, neither is Italian or a known associate of mob members – I guess he might be trying to collect a debt in exchange for being forgiven his own debt – still highly unlikely. That leaves me with only one possibility – they made a wager between them for a great deal of money on the outcome of some unknown even. I think that is simply human nature and not the result of legal or illegal sports wagering. The vast majority of gambling in the world happens just like that – two people (usually men) wagering on the outcome of an event. It does not often end in violence and it is not something that leagues, police or anyone else has ever been able to control. Although some might control whether athletes carry guns everywhere, including to games – that sounds reasonable; guns are ultimately more dangerous to all of us than a friendly or unfriendly wager.
Ken Adams
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