Sports Gambling: A Risky Business

American sports face a variety of problems, including illegal drug use and the spread of infectious diseases. Although not discussed as often as necessary, the sporting world has another significant issue - gambling. While the legality of how a person places a bet is often questionable, the more important issue is the act of betting. In August 2007, HR.com cited a passage from the California Employment Law Letter containing alarming evidence, such as the statistic that over fifty-percent of employees participate in football pools for the regular season and the Super Bowl. Gambling’s dramatic effects in the workplace is supported by a 2005 CNNMoney.com article that noted a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. The study concluded that interest in the NCAA’s March Madness (see an example of a bracket used for gambling in the image to the left) would cost employers almost $900 million, over $100 million more than the prior year. Earlier this year, Greg Levine of CNBC.com noted another study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which discovered that distractions due to the 2007 Super Bowl would cost employers about $800 million. Clearly, the fact that these two sporting events could cost employers almost $2 billion in productivity shows that gambling is a significant problem in the United States. Gambling’s negative financial impact is not limited to employers only, as Mark Lange of the Christian Science Monitor noted last May that Americans lost $84 billion gambling in 2006. Lange says that gamblers, “…lost more than they spent on movie tickets, recorded music, spectator sports, video games, and theme parks combined”.

Beyond the financial consequences, adults should feel obligated to forego gambling because of its addictive and reckless nature. These types of actions set a poor example for children, and research has shown that children will imitate the actions of the adults in their lives. Public concern with gambling needs to address the potential negative impact gambling adults can have on children, as gambling is not a social woe affecting only adults. Not only does gambling make children associate negative attributes to sports, such as cheating, it also harms children psychologically and physically. The National Council on Problem Gambling discusses some of the various ways minors are exposed to gambling; thus, adults must be aware that a single wager can have an impact on a child. Adults should eliminate gambling from their lives because the potential financial reward for gambling does not outweigh the likelihood of significant monetary loss. Another reason adults should not gamble is because children will learn to emulate the dangerous behavior. A surprising example of this trend comes from the University of Southern California’s student-run newspaper, the Daily Trojan. In a section only available in the print edition, five sports writers do not choose who will win, but rather if a team will cover the spread. One major problem with this situation: not all of the sports writers are old enough to legally gamble in the United States.

Sports gambling may seem to be a minor concern in the context of the many problems in the world today, but the importance of the debate must not be ignored. If gambling truly was a trivial matter, then online gambling companies such as Bookmaker.com would not need to locate their companies in places like Costa Rica, a country which CBSNews.com notes has laws that favor these types of businesses. In the wake of the recent developments like the NBA referee scandal (see the image of troubled referee Tim Donaghy to the left), gambling has developed into an increasingly significant issue in American society. Adult gambling can affect children in various ways; gambling can harm children physically, as this WBEN.com report shows, where a gambling-addicted parent left his child locked up in the car while he gambled. Gambling can also have significant psychological effects, as gambling is an addictive, risky activity that does impairs the development of important character traits like self-control and moderation. Seeing adults gamble, children learn that dangerous behaviors are acceptable. Fiscal responsibility and a non-addictive personality are important traits necessary for a productive life in our modern-day society. Adults who gamble hindering the ethical and psychological development of their children, and this behavior must change, for no one benefits from their mistakes except the bookies and the casinos.