The ban on college sports betting is political and would have merit if it stopped campus betting and all the other billions of dollars in illegal sports betting. And it might pass, so then kicking a few dents in the Nevada sportsbook industry, but for the most part, I don't think anyone cares any great amount.
Which is certainly not what the politicians who hatched that asinine plot had in mind. Heroes are not created by the silly putty of ill-advised legislation, but goats are bred in abundance when the passage of time proves that ships are sunk, or athletes' morals are decimated, not by the 5 percent of the iceberg you see, but by the 95 percent you can't see.
And this garbage about bettors needing a line out of a newspaper preempts the vast abilities of the sports betting public. I know many a bettor who can set accurate lines prior to the published posting. So then? Yes, right, illegal bookies can set plausible lines, but what is worse is the fact that their lines will be slanted in their favor.
No restrictions. No control. The same efficiency as is evidenced in our war against drugs and was displayed during Prohibition will take effect. A suggestion would be to ask what good it does a legitimate sportsbook to have a fixed game in a faraway place that they know nothing about, and how does the absence of legitimate action make any difference to those fixing the game?
The point is, if enough college games are fixed, the Nevada bettors, pros that they are, are going to catch on and simply quit betting. But illegal books will suffer also. And their bettors. Gee, the only ones who profit are those in the immediate proximity who are in on the fix. I guess it is something like putting out poisoned whiskey during Prohibition.
I don't lament the sports betting aspects of this sorry legislation but the scurrilous lack of sound reasoning by politicians who purport to guide this country. If this issue had been thoroughly researched and the only professionals who can give proper guidance to eliminating illegal sports betting had been consulted, the Nevada sports betting industry, the problem would have been quietly solved. But quiet is the last thing these half-assed politicians want!
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