What do you think? With the All Star weekend there do you think that this is just the beginning of a relationship between the league an Vegas?
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6...HPHCP>1=9131
" Modern Vegas no threat to pro sports
The NBA is taking its All-Star game to Las Vegas this week. I'd like to place the first wager. I'll put $10,000 on the league surviving until next week.
What? Nobody will take that action?
Just 15 years ago, the idea of a major sport taking its All-Star game to Sin City would have been absurd. Vegas meant sports gambling, and sports gambling meant Pete Rose, the Chicago Black Sox and CCNY.
Well, it is time to change the thinking. Las Vegas deserves a pro sports team. Is there a risk? No more than putting a hockey team in Phoenix.
I understand the concerns about a point-shaving scandal. That has always been every league's worst nightmare, and for good reason: it undermines the whole point of the enterprise. We watch the games under the assumption that the games are not fixed. If games are fixed, why watch?
I get all that. What I do not understand is why, in 2007, people think a pro team in Vegas is more susceptible to a gambling scandal than a pro team anywhere else.
If an NBA star wants to gamble, all he needs is an Internet connection. Gambling websites are easily found — they are conveniently located in places like Costa Rica, away from U.S. authorities, but they are clearly aimed at Americans.
If that NBA star wants a little danger mixed in, he can go to the local mob.
But only a total idiot NBA star would walk into the sports book at the Mirage and wager on NBA games, let alone his own games.
Yeah, I know, he can send his buddy to do that for him (if only the NBA star can somehow find a hanger-on to run his chores for him).
But at least gambling in Vegas is regulated. That is more than you can say for most of the millions of dollars wagered on sports in America every year. When Arizona State players fixed four games in the 1993-94 season, they were eventually caught partly because Vegas casinos noticed a suspicious gambling pattern.
The All-Star festivities will be over after this weekend, but the NBA may be back in Las Vegas with a permanent franchise. (Steve Spatafore/NBAE / Getty Images)
Think about that for a second. This means that if a player tries to fix a game in Las Vegas, he is more likely to get caught there than anywhere else in the country.
Gambling on sports is a complicated issue.
The libertarian in me thinks gambling should be legal everywhere, in principle. Is it really more harmful to society than drinking? I mean, when was the last time you saw somebody killed by a gambling driver?
The pragmatist in me thinks that if you can't gamble everywhere, it might as well be illegal.
The sports fan in me likes to monitor point spreads, but worries about a scandal affecting his games.
The claustrophobe in me thinks there are way too many people in me.
Like I said; it's a complicated issue.
But the old thinking of "Vegas = gambling = avoid at all costs" is way, way too simple.
Look, point-shaving and game-fixing are major threats to professional and college sports. With the proliferation of gambling websites and incredible money at stake for bookies, it is quite likely that games have been fixed in recent years and we just don't know about it.
If anything, leagues need to take a more aggressive stance toward gambling.
They can start by showing that they know the world has changed. It is easy to paint Vegas as the big, bad threat to sports. But this is 2007, not 1977. Casinos are usually owned by major corporations, not mobsters. Las Vegas is not an outlaw desert town — it is a thriving metropolitan area with a thriving entertainment industry. Someday, some commissioner will realize that Vegas is not the enemy, and that commissioner's league will be better off for it.
Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg is a frequent contributor to FOXsports.com. An archive of his Free Press columns can be found here."
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6...HPHCP>1=9131
" Modern Vegas no threat to pro sports
The NBA is taking its All-Star game to Las Vegas this week. I'd like to place the first wager. I'll put $10,000 on the league surviving until next week.
What? Nobody will take that action?
Just 15 years ago, the idea of a major sport taking its All-Star game to Sin City would have been absurd. Vegas meant sports gambling, and sports gambling meant Pete Rose, the Chicago Black Sox and CCNY.
Well, it is time to change the thinking. Las Vegas deserves a pro sports team. Is there a risk? No more than putting a hockey team in Phoenix.
I understand the concerns about a point-shaving scandal. That has always been every league's worst nightmare, and for good reason: it undermines the whole point of the enterprise. We watch the games under the assumption that the games are not fixed. If games are fixed, why watch?
I get all that. What I do not understand is why, in 2007, people think a pro team in Vegas is more susceptible to a gambling scandal than a pro team anywhere else.
If an NBA star wants to gamble, all he needs is an Internet connection. Gambling websites are easily found — they are conveniently located in places like Costa Rica, away from U.S. authorities, but they are clearly aimed at Americans.
If that NBA star wants a little danger mixed in, he can go to the local mob.
But only a total idiot NBA star would walk into the sports book at the Mirage and wager on NBA games, let alone his own games.
Yeah, I know, he can send his buddy to do that for him (if only the NBA star can somehow find a hanger-on to run his chores for him).
But at least gambling in Vegas is regulated. That is more than you can say for most of the millions of dollars wagered on sports in America every year. When Arizona State players fixed four games in the 1993-94 season, they were eventually caught partly because Vegas casinos noticed a suspicious gambling pattern.
The All-Star festivities will be over after this weekend, but the NBA may be back in Las Vegas with a permanent franchise. (Steve Spatafore/NBAE / Getty Images)
Think about that for a second. This means that if a player tries to fix a game in Las Vegas, he is more likely to get caught there than anywhere else in the country.
Gambling on sports is a complicated issue.
The libertarian in me thinks gambling should be legal everywhere, in principle. Is it really more harmful to society than drinking? I mean, when was the last time you saw somebody killed by a gambling driver?
The pragmatist in me thinks that if you can't gamble everywhere, it might as well be illegal.
The sports fan in me likes to monitor point spreads, but worries about a scandal affecting his games.
The claustrophobe in me thinks there are way too many people in me.
Like I said; it's a complicated issue.
But the old thinking of "Vegas = gambling = avoid at all costs" is way, way too simple.
Look, point-shaving and game-fixing are major threats to professional and college sports. With the proliferation of gambling websites and incredible money at stake for bookies, it is quite likely that games have been fixed in recent years and we just don't know about it.
If anything, leagues need to take a more aggressive stance toward gambling.
They can start by showing that they know the world has changed. It is easy to paint Vegas as the big, bad threat to sports. But this is 2007, not 1977. Casinos are usually owned by major corporations, not mobsters. Las Vegas is not an outlaw desert town — it is a thriving metropolitan area with a thriving entertainment industry. Someday, some commissioner will realize that Vegas is not the enemy, and that commissioner's league will be better off for it.
Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg is a frequent contributor to FOXsports.com. An archive of his Free Press columns can be found here."
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