Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Recent takes on the gambling scandal resulting in arrests for NBA players and coaches, Terry Rozier and Chauncy Billups to name a few, vary to no surprise (for me) in line with people’s personal biases and moral/ethical foundations.
I’m neither surprised nor offended by the varied takes.
Examples of opinions vary among “all gambling is bad,” “gambling should not be legal,” and “what happened to these guys?” It’s unavoidable collateral damage even when (what many call) a vice is legalized: sports gambling in this case.
Consider the following, nonetheless.
Bear in mind the legalization of gambling allowed the stunt Rozier was trying to pull show up on the radar very quickly. Fan Duel caught it in 15 minutes.
Any substance or vice – alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, and even gambling – are not going to work well for any user who “can’t put it down.” Each one of these has a delicate balance between its worst impact on people’s lives and fruitful economic opportunities.
Voters in scores of states by majority stood behind their conviction that these should be monitored, regulated, and taxed instead of further fueling organized crime and the underground justice when users get in their own collective way.
How ‘bout that tax revenue, huh?
Governing bodies win. A handful of wealthy establishments win and further influence the industry. Most other “storekeepers” just get by, though.
While what happened is unfortunate, gambling is something better suited in the hands of legalized betting sites/companies instead of starting a transaction with “Pssst…” with someone linked among varied degrees to organized crime.
My background in mathematics continues to keep me far away from sports gambling - all gambling for that matter - even though it’s now legalized.
I’ll spare anecdotes about people close to me while growing up or people I “knew of” whose experiences also influenced my aversion to gambling.
Furthermore, just walk through the lobby of a casino with a posh hotel to house its prey, and you’ll know who wins most of the time.
Like I mentioned in a previous column, even the “sharps” have at best a 60-ish percent success rate.
Ask any doctor if he or she thinks it’s O.K. for any of us to smoke cigarettes. Their educational and professional backgrounds - as well as their practical and ethical foundations - are chock-full of information they convey to patients discouraging them from smoking cigarettes.
I am not pleased with the athletes and coaches who used connections and insider information for unsavory gains, but I am pleased with – thanks to legalization of sports gambling – how quickly they were caught: the aforementioned 15-minutes “flag” in particular. Chauncey Billups’s case, however, already had a string of victims lured into a rigged den over a greater period of time.
Think of doorbell cameras. Have they eradicated crime? No, but they do make some wrong doers take an about-face from your home entrance.
Until the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation, there were scores of corporate rogues – in high and low profiles – preying on investors and circumventing business ethics to make a lot of money for themselves.
A handful (Enron exec Kenny Lay for example) experienced high visibility in print, Internet, and television coverage of their misdeeds and the consequences in turn.
Should any athlete or business leader receive lethal-sounding threats, or be victimized by talkers whose betting or investment choices were calculated risks?
No. This is – in fact - a dark, sad by-product of sports gambling’s pervasiveness.
I hear more about the red tape SOX legislation presents in the daily working of accountants and executives in public companies than I hear about the vulgar, predatory acts among rogue executives and other business titans following and executing misdeeds based on their own rationalized greed, and/or bad legal and accounting advice.
Sports gambling, on the other hand, seems to have the public’s unfettered focus on its bad actors.
Public corporations are thankfully governed by SOX legislation that results in their actions surfacing sooner than they would have without any guardrails.
While the amount of reporting requirements among publicly traded companies has increased, the results of the reports save employees from being targets in a set-up just as much as they warrant scrutiny when something smells rotten.
My varied period close processes in my “day job” actually result in fewer questions or uncertainties when my work is reviewed.
Legislation for violations of business laws, sports gambling, and other vices and guilty pleasures will not eradicate misconduct, but they certainly bring such behavior to the surface more clearly, more quickly.
Legalization also opens up support systems for those who are self-aware enough to realize they can’t put down nor walk away from a behavior or a substance. It also gives authorities license to monitor and address bad actors with practical justice.
Entertainment – fact and fiction based – illustrates the downside of prohibiting certain vices and substances.
Any organized crime associate who thrived in that segment’s hey-day will tell you about their trajectory toward wealth and power increasing exponentially when the U.S. Constitution’s 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol was ratified 106 years ago, but sensibly repealed in 1933 with the 21st Amendment.
