Betting a trend won't go away
People need to be reminded the house always wins.
If you’re a casual football fan like me, you’ve kept an eye on some of the playoff games going on - particularly around these parts with the number of Eagles fans I know. Some of the playoff games have been exciting and a few dull as dishwater, but regardless of the quality of the game we’re now seeing a quantity of the commercials dealing with one subject: gambling.
Over the past year or two, more and more states have been entering an unholy alliance with sports bookmakers to encourage people to wager on the various outcomes possible with sports. Just a couple weeks ago, one lucky bettor parlayed a $5 free bet into $72,795 by correctly picking the first player to score a touchdown in all four of that weekend’s playoff games.
But then there’s the guy who lost $19,000 and his job because he was reportedly the first person to legally bet on a game in Ohio. You might have heard of him: his name is Bernie Kosar.
“Earlier this week we notified Bernie, that per league policy, we were required to remove him from our pregame radio coverage for the season finale after he violated the NFL gambling policy by placing a bet on an NFL game. We understand what Bernie means to this community and our history but as team contracted personnel hired to provide content on our media platforms, his bet was a violation of NFL rules and we must adhere to all NFL policy.”
That was the statement from the Cleveland Browns, who let Kosar go from his radio gig because of NFL rules. Yet if you watch an NFL game, you see commercial after commercial for bookmakers - watching the Eagles beat up on the 49ers, you couldn’t help but see the prominent ads for these firms, even inside the stadium. Brown and orange may have been Bernie’s life, and the winnings on the $19,000 (19 being symbolic because that was Kosar’s jersey number with the Browns) Bernie dropped (and lost) on the Browns-Steelers game would have gone to charity, but he’s out of a job regardless. Seems like hypocrisy at its finest, doesn’t it?
Bernie doesn’t seem to have luck on his side: he was the losing quarterback for both The Drive and The Fumble, won his Super Bowl ring as a spare part on the Dallas Cowboys’ 1993 team (his lone action in the game was kneeling down on the game’s final play with the outcome long since decided), and managed to lose most of what he played for in a decade-long career for Cleveland, Dallas, and Miami through bad investments. Granted, he probably never has to buy a beer again in Cleveland despite his betting misstep but imagine what happens to factory worker Kernie Bosar when he gets hooked by the $200 in “free bets” these sports books offer for new customers and begins spending real money that would normally go to his rent and groceries?
When I was but a lad, the state of Ohio began its first lottery game, called Buckeye 300. You paid 50 cents and had a chance at $300,000 by matching five sets of numbers. A few years later, they began what they called The Number, which was essentially a game like the Mob used to run - you match a three-digit number they pick and win $500 on a $1 bet. They also had scratch-offs and eventually their own pick-6 lotto game. During all that, they formally earmarked lottery proceeds toward education, which was one of the selling points of the original lottery but not initially codified into law.
Of course, the thirst for revenue was strong and once Ohio got tired of people driving to Michigan or Indiana to play Powerball or Mega Millions, they jumped into those as well. Just before I moved to Maryland, the Buckeye state was attempting once again to legalize casinos in the state (they had tried a couple times and failed) and finally succeeded as they convinced voters that surrounding states shouldn’t have all the fun. (My first casino experience was in Detroit, but I also went to Windsor, Ontario once. It was like trading dollars for Monopoly money.) Now they’ve cut sports betting in on the lottery’s deal - a crude version of which originated in Delaware many years ago but lay dormant for decades.
But the reality is that lotteries - and now state-sponsored casinos outside of Las Vegas - are simply a tax on the poor and middle-class. (Las Vegas has become more of a destination city initially built on gambling. Now you can spend your days there never pulling a one-armed bandit.) As I said, I have been to several casinos over the years but what I take is my “mad money” - nowadays maybe $200 at most - with the idea of killing a couple hours and hoping to win back enough for a nice dinner. I rather enjoyed sitting at a roulette table in Vegas many years ago (and maybe doing a little better than break-even) the one time I was out there but could see how one could be down a paycheck because they’re convinced that #36 will come up on the next spin and make up what they’ve lost.
With sports gambling, though, this reaches a whole new level. Even if you win on the “free bets” these entities give away, all you get is the overage and not the amount bet. If you bet the $200 to get $300, all you’d get is the $100 - the house keeps the $200. It’s a bit like mad money, but one would have to be disciplined (and carefully consider the terms and conditions) to be a responsible bettor. Too many are not, and this is why casinos are in such fancy buildings without clocks or windows.
And you can bet your bottom dollar that the state which legalizes the practice is doing so because they’re getting a hefty cut of the action. I remember the fight over Maryland’s take when they got into the casino business several years ago - people were worried they wouldn’t do well because the state asked for too much. (Doesn’t seem to affect business now, though.) Poor people won’t vote for tax increases, but they’ll sure go out and take the over on the Super Bowl and groan when it’s a 13-3 snoozer like the one a couple years ago.
The only ones who don’t get the occasional bad beat are the state, because (repeat after me) the house always wins. And they have no care who loses along the way.