Poll finds 40 percent of sports reporters gamble on sports

There are at least two or three different pools in the press box each week and I'm sure the same number circulating the infield media center.

 

Damn. I had the under.

 

I'll bet you all $400 I can get you betting by the end of this day.

 

When I saw that, that's what immediately made me think this poll was bogus. I'd say it's more like 60 percent and 45 percent.

 

Whether you gamble or not, does having a working knowledge of sports gambling help you do your job?

 

That 74% is almost as bad a number as Boise State - 5 1/2 was.

 

The almost-uniform horribly-bad job general assignment reporters do on gambling stories answers that question -- as if it needed an answer.

 

most heavy sports bettors are self-loathers anyway. they'd probably just chalk it up to their own bad luck, not the coaches or players. there was a great section in mike freeman's espn book about the excessive gambling that would go on there in the 80s, early 90s. i guess a ton of crew and production people had some serious cash on a random west coast baseball game that was completely meaningless, and berman said on air, "and in a game that had no meaning whatsoever here in bristol..."

ah, the good old days.

 

You can bet your sweet ass that if a newspaper executive gets a hold of this, they'll be an increase in paperwork where you guys will sign a "conflict of interest" note and be refrained, under penalty of dismissal, from betting on any sport, whether you actually cover it or not. Just another punch in the gut from the boys in the boardroom who seek to make the workplace fun.

 

I know too much about sports to bet on it.

But I did win the press box attendance pool in Cincinnati three days in a row.