Open Market – With Super Bowl XLVIII in the history books, all that remains now is for the losers to lick their wounds and for the victors to collect their spoils. The Seattle Seahawks will return home to their adoring fans while the winners of friendly bets and office pools will collect their winnings. Of course, in most states wagering on sports is illegal. Should it be, or is it about time that states legalized the widespread activity of sports gambling?
The short answer: It should never have been banned in the first place. Legalization would protect gamblers from the dangers of the black market, increase revenues for cash-strapped state governments, and restore adult Americans’ right to decide how to spend their own money. The question of whether some gambling should be legal has long been settled. All but one state — Hawaii — has some form of legalized gambling. All but six states have lotteries, in which almost 60 percent of Americans bought tickets in 2013. Gambling is, quite simply, in our nature. People have engaged in it since the beginning of recorded history and about 86 percent of Americans reported gambling at least once in their life, according to a Gambling Impact and Behavior Study done in 1999.
Bans don’t work: Despite the de facto ban on Internet gambling, an estimated 70 million Americans still wagered online in 2010. And, despite the fact that sports wagering is only legal in four states, an estimated 50 percent of American adults all across the nation put money down on the outcome of this past weekend’s Super Bowl. Bans on sports gambling make criminals of ordinary people, put them in potentially dangerous situations in dealing with bookies, and make states miss out on potential revenue.
Legalized gambling = increased tax revenue: Nevada generated upwards of $20 million in tax revenue from sports wagering in 2012. Only three other states — Oregon, Delaware, and Montana — reap the benefits of legal sports wagering. For an idea of the potential revenue states could gain from legalized sports wagering, consider this: more than $2.5 billion is illegally wagered during the three-week period of “March Madness” last year, according to the FBI.
Gambling bans don’t protect the sport: Some argue sports gambling hurts the game. They appear to believe players will throw games if they bet on opponents. But as we have seen, bans do not stop sports betting, they merely drive it underground where it attracts a criminal element and cannot be policed effectively. To the extent that legalization makes gambling a transparent activity organized by businessmen, rather than a black market run by criminals, legalization should make it easier for teams, leagues, and courts to police misconduct by players and coaches.
