Wanna Bet?

Imagine being a state lawmaker and ten of thousands of your constituents called you up demanding to be allowed to pay a new tax.  And amazingly, the people who are opposed to this new tax are the ones that would never end up paying it anyway.  Plus, this new tax would allow the government access to anywhere between 80 and 400-BILLION dollars worth of commerce.

Well that is an opportunity that may be coming to state lawmakers not only here in Wisconsin--but across the US--as the Supreme Court decides if a federal ban on sports betting is constitutional.  New Jersey is leading the legal fight against the ban so it's struggling Atlantic City casinos could cash in on gambling on games--but every other state could allow it as well then, and tap into this new source of revenue.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is in favor of granting states the right to have sports betting.  He is the one that estimates the illegal gambling activity to be 400-billion--but since it is currently unregulated, it puts his sport in jeopardy.  Remember, the NBA had to deal with the Tim Donaghy scandal, as a now-former referee admitted to influencing games he worked to help his own betting and that of others.  Silver believes that if casinos and state regulators can monitor gambling activity on games, patterns indicating a fix that were later found in Donaghy's case would be spotted much earlier.

Sports gambling is part of the culture in many other countries.  You can go to a British Premier League soccer game and bet right at the stadium.  While betting parlors are not on site at Wimbledon and British Open golf courses, they are just steps away from the gates--and a great many fans put down a quid or two before heading in.  We likely wouldn't see anything like that here in the US--but on-line betting would almost certainly be huge here.

If presented with the opportunity to legalize sports betting in Wisconsin, you can expect many legislators will pontificate about the "message it sends to kids", how "gambling ruins families" and their unfounded fears that somehow Packers players making millions of dollars are going to throw games on behalf of gamblers that can't offer them a tenth of that.  But while they may fret publicly about allowing yet another vice into our society, they can't help but picture the millions of dollars exchanging hands at the betting window that they would be able to tap into.

It's no different than the states that have allowed recreational use of marijuana--and its legal sale to the public.  Many called it "social justice" (because fewer African-American dealers would get locked up) or "medically necessary" (because people should be allowed to self-medicate based on the amazing claims that pot cures all ills with no side-effects).  But at the root of it all was the desire to bring in more tax dollars.  Especially when the dopes are already begging to pay it.