Is sports betting morally wrong for sports writers?

House has the edge, because of the vig (-110, in 98% of all cases, in Nevada). A coinflipper is bucking a grind of some 4 1/2%. The dice
table takes less than one-third of that percentage, on the "pass" or "don't pass" lines.

 

House has no edge ... you are paying for the service. Just like poker where you pay a rake or pay for time.

 

Actually I know some who are.

 

Some places have a pool going.

 

Betting 4-team parlays is morally wrong.

 

I always liked this story from Dr. Z about gambling as a sportswriter. It's pretty accurate. If I'm picking games, I always go against the local paper's "experts." And the NY Post's crew is the worst. Comically bad.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/dr_z/10/13/betting/index.html

 

No, I mean I know some political writers across the country who have actually put down money on the outcome in Vegas.

 

Really?

Where in Vegas did they put the bet down?

 

I have absolutely no working knowledge of how gambling works and couldn't give a rat's ass about the point spread of games.
Would that keep me from doing my job properly if I were covering a pro team?

 

Not sure where in Vegas, but McCain is +150 according to Bodog. Oops, that's his age. Just kidding. Obama is -200.

 

Vegas doesn't book elections . . . and for the same reasons they don't book the Academy Awards . . . they don't go out of their way to write business on anything involving public voting.

 

To be honest, if you have a pro beat, some knowledge of the gambling industry probably wouldn't be a bad thing. Just like knowledge of economics, Spanish, history, etc. ... that could quite possibly be of use to you at some point.