March Is All About The Money

March Madness.  Aka the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament A.K.A. the most hectic time in college basketball and maybe even college athletics as a whole.  From upsets, to “Cinderella teams”, to final second buzzer beaters, this 68-team tournament provides all the dizzying highs and terrifying lows a sports fan could ask for.  However, there is one aspect to the tournament that at any other time of the year would be looked down on.  Betting.

In the United States, it is illegal to bet on sports except in a few legalized places such as Delaware, Montana, Oregon and most of Nevada.  Sports betting has been outlawed in the United States for a very long time.

Sports betting generates huge amounts of revenue for states, and creates a much larger buzz around sporting events.  The New York lottery alone brought in $3.05 billion, which went towards public education, and the NCAA tournament is so popular due to the betting aspect of it.

One person that can attest to the added hype that betting has on sports is Highland senior Zach Tucker.  Tucker actively bets on his favorite sports team, the Runnin’ Utes basketball team.

“When the spread favors the Utes, but not by enough, I like to bet on them because I have confidence in them,” Tucker said.  “It’s scary, but usually I make a good bet because I know the Utes so well, and I’ve made some good money.”

Tucker who had been on a betting hot streak, has also seen the tough flipside to betting on sports.  The Runnin’ Utes defeated the UCLA Bruins by 32 points on Jan 4th at the Huntsman Center.  The second game in the season series was to be played Jan 29th in Los Angeles.  When the spread came out, Utah was only favored to win by six points.  To Tucker, this seemed like easy money.  The Utes had decimated the Bruins at home and were only favored by six points.  However the then number 10 ranked Utes were upset, causing heartbreak among the Ute faithful, and causing Tucker to lose a significant amount of money.

“That’s the most emotional I think I’ve ever seen Zach,” close friend Bubs Divver said about Tucker after the game.

Even though sports betting is technically illegal, during the NCAA tournament, millions of people fill out brackets and openly put money on who they think will win.  During this period of time, US gambling laws seem to go out the window.  Even though sports betting is against the law, millions of people bet on the NCAA tournament, and not a single person has been prosecuted regarding it.  It is estimated that around $12 billion dollars are bet on March Madness each year.

The NCAA tournament and sports in general would not generate the popularity that they do if not for betting.  Now, many die hard sports fans would oppose this and say they have supported their favorite team since for as long as they remember.  But, betting and sports have gone along together since the beginning.  Sports such as horse racing and even to a lesser extent football, would not be where they are today if not for betting.  Horse racing and betting have gone hand in hand for as long as the sport has been around. The NFL through Fantasy Football and the betting associated with it has caused the sport to boom in popularity.  Real life money attracts attention and popularity for sports, and the NFL and NCAA tournament are not exceptions.

The massive betting business related to the NCAA tournament also shows be tied to the current problem with attendance rates at regular season basketball games.  Universities have reported that regular season college basketball attendance rates are plummeting, but tournament games are still as popular as ever.  Now some of this may be due to how high quality and convenient television coverage there is today.  But part of it, is that people care about the teams they have put money down on.  If this was not at least a semi-factor in attendance rates, good college basketball teams should sell out every game.  But they are not, and attendance is only getting worse.

If betting was legal all of the time, universities may not be experiencing this problem quite as severely as they are now.  The added revenue and interest in college basketball and collegiate athletics as a whole would skyrocket.   Real money creates real interest in any contest or scenario.  Sports betting would generate Betting on sports makes the games so much more important to sports fans because their money is on the line.  It would be in the best interest of sports teams and organizations to make sports betting legal, because interest would skyrocket.

Sports betting is also a huge money maker, and would become a huge boost to the economy if it was legal and regulated.  Cities such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City exist because of money generated on gambling of all kinds.  Legal sports betting would generate massive amounts of money, and even create new jobs for the United States.

Recently the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, has expressed interest on making gambling on the NBA legal.  Silver understands that there are huge amounts of money that are not helping the NBA because they are being bet illegally.  If there was a legal way to do this, it would be convenient for people to bet their own money, and it would help sports leagues across the country.

Betting has always been a part of sport and is not going away anytime soon.  It is a simple fact that fans care more about teams and players to perform well and win if their own money is riding on it.  Betting in the U.S., specifically on sports, should be legal, and people should be free to use their money as they please.