Talk about a timely assist.
The American Gaming Association on Thursday showcased a powerful ally in its emerging strategy to expand legalized sports betting on a national level: National Basketball Commissioner Emeritus David Stern.
Stern’s keynote chat with AGA President and CEO Geoff Freeman left no doubt about where the NBA’s longtime leader stands on the reality of sports betting in America.
He’s all for legalization and regulation.
Not because it’s a panacea — it’s far from that — but because it’s the most mature approach to the reality that America’s illegally bet between $80 billion and $380 billion a year on games and matches and just about anything that moves. (The AGA’s working number is $150 billion, but that’s just an informed hunch because — you guessed it — illegal bookmakers don’t generally share their bottom line with squares.)
Only a few years ago, the prospect of the commissioner of a professional sports league speaking publicly about the potential positive impact of legalized, regulated betting on games would have been absurd. Even league executives who weren’t strangers to casino gambling shied away from even casual talk about bettors and bookmakers.
But Stern has been a leader on this topic for more than a decade. Unlike commissioners in other sports, he hasn’t been afraid of Las Vegas. Although Stern spoke on behalf of the passage of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which limits legalized sports betting to Nevada, he said Thursday he favors revising it to widen legalization — and the regulation that must be an integral part of the plan.
His view of the Las Vegas mystique and sports betting’s place in the economic order evolved gradually over the years. During his 30-year tenure as commissioner (1984-2014) he came to appreciate how square the legal bookmakers of Las Vegas really were — and how their ability to decipher the slightest changes in betting lines nationally gave the league its best intelligence and understanding of the real action flowing on the games.
“I’ve had an interesting relationship with Las Vegas,” Stern said, recalling his early negotiations with local bookmaking and handicapping business icon Vic Salerno. Some people may have forgotten, but Stern recalls the controversy generated in some sports circles when he approved the Utah Jazz to play 10 games in Las Vegas back in 1984. An All-Star game followed. And the NBA Summer League and USA Basketball training camp are headquartered here.
“We have a pretty easy relationship,” Stern says. “I’m on a first-name basis with both Mayors Goodman (Oscar and Carolyn.)”
And the action flows whether we pass federal laws or not. And a fair argument can be made that PASPA has done little more than help drive the illegal bookmakers and their customers further into the shadows. Meanwhile, millions of fans of those leagues were betting, for the most part illegally, with their neighborhood bookie or via the Internet in an online web site.
It’s important to note that Stern actually differs with the AGA on a key detail. He favors keeping but revising PASPA and maintaining a federal oversight. The Gaming Inc. lobby wants to repeal it in its entirety and allow individual states to legalize and regulate.
Although Freeman has expressed confidence PASPA could be passe in as little as three to five years, it would be wise to listen to Stern.
Stern placed the NBA far ahead of other sports leagues in its views on betting. The basketball league, for instance, doesn’t get uptight about casino advertising — something that gave past Major League Baseball commissioners apoplexy.
When Stern’s friend and successor Adam Silver slammed home the point in a 2012 op-ed piece in The New York Times under the headline, “Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting,” it was game over from the NBA’s standpoint.
Silver wrote in part that the league had originally opposed sports betting and supported PASPA, “But despite legal restrictions, sports betting is widespread. It is a thriving underground business that operates free from regulation or oversight. Because there are few legal options available, those who wish to bet resort to illicit bookmaking operations and shady offshore websites. There is no solid data on the volume of illegal sports betting activity in the United States, but some estimate that nearly $400 billion is illegally wagered on sports each year.”
Silver, like his predecessor, was considered forward-thinking because he had the courage to state the painfully obvious.
“Times have changed since PASPA was enacted,” he wrote. “Gambling has increasingly become a popular and accepted form of entertainment in the United States. Most states offer lotteries. Over half of them have legal casinos. Three have approved some form of Internet gambling, with others poised to follow. …There is an obvious appetite among sports fans for a safe and legal way to wager on professional sporting events. Mainstream media outlets regularly publish sports betting lines and point spreads.”
Sports gambling will continue apace with or without federal approval. It only makes sense to legalize the activity and regulate it, derive billions in income and taxes and protect the teams and leagues in the process.
If the AGA eventually prevails, it will have Stern and Silver and the NBA to thank for its biggest assist.
John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com, or on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.
