Sports betting

wow, that just seems odd ... and makes me feel a little dirty, to be honest.

 

What about betting legally in Vegas? Say you're a college football writer, and you're in V-Money on the team's off weekend, and you a lay a few hundie on a Pac-10 squad you've never covered in any way, shape, or form. Or you're a college basketball writer, and you cobble together a parlay card of teams you won't be covering that year. Legal, yes -- but ethical? Opinions, please.

 

I've never bet on an event I covered except some souvenir tickets at big races never cashed if won.
I bet on plenty of other events in my time as a columnist. I wrote a sports betting advice column once. So frickin' what?
Financial writers are allowed to invest as long as they make full disclosure. That's way bigger money than $20 on a race or a game. Why shouldn't sports work under the same rules?

 

Not a damn thing wrong with it!
My, how we wrestle with our consciences. A recent Discovery Channel/A&E-type show on my satellite dish told how Australia is far and away the most gambling-est area of the world. Slot machines and books on near 'bout every corner of cities big and small there.
Anyway, there was a line from the show that went something like "what society condones and participates in on one hand, it pushes away with the other"
A rather profound thought.
The show said 80 percent of those polled admitted gambling at least once in the past calendar year.
Folks like to bet on something. It's enticing to ponder big winnings.
If you feel froggy, then jump.
If you can bet on football or basketball and you know in your heart of hearts that it's not compromising your job-related ethical stance, then do it.
Fuck the rest of the world who wants to tell you something's wrong with it.
We create so damn much stress for ourselves. We all need to relax more.
And quit worrying about what someone else might think is right or wrong.
Follow your heart.

 

If writing about sports should teach SJ's anything, it's that we don't know anything.

That ought to tell us all we need to know about gambling.

Getting up and leaving the house is gamble enough.

 

Years ago, a story was making the rounds of a major conference basketball writer being suspended because of gambling on the team he covered. The coach allegedly went to the publisher to complain after a player told him the writer kept asking players if they thought they'd cover the spread.

If true, I don't know how he wasn't fired.

As for the horses, it's legal. And, frankly, I don't want our handicapper offering picks to our readers that he isn't willing to back with his own money.

 

I'm guessing that a lot of the country's best turf writers would not be in that press box if they were unable to wager at the site.

 

. . . though outside of the NY Times (which says if ya cover the races, ya can't bet 'em, or yer ouuuuuut), with every other stateside paper, it's open season, far as I know . . .

 

At the Herald, we once had an office pool on the Little League World Series. But we weren't covering it.