There's a free preview of the NHL Center Ice game package. Until October 24th I've got 14 channels showing out-of-market NHL games. When there aren't too many games, they'll carry both teams' feeds. Tonight there's only one game: Columbus at Vancouver. So I'm watching the Vancouver feed, and during a commercial break there's an ad for the local lottery. In British Columbia (and perhaps other Canadian provinces as well), local residents can play the lottery online. They can play the usual daily number games and the national Lotto (think Powerball or MegaMillions), plus Keno, "Pacific Hold-em" Poker and even sports betting. And they can do it all online.
Try playing a lottery number online in Pennsylvania. Buy a Powerball ticket online? Not here. As for sports betting, well, as David Letterman said the other night, do you feel like a little story?
This year the state of Delaware announced a plan to begin single-game wagering on sports. The Delaware Park racetrack and slots parlor spent lots of money to open up a sports book like those in Las Vegas casinos. A federal law passed in 1992 banning sports gambling exempted Delaware because, in 1976, they ran a game in which you could place parlay bets -- meaning, you had to pick winners in at least 3 games -- on NFL games. It was such a failure that they ended the game within a year.
The major pro sports leagues and the NCAA filed lawsuits to stop Delaware's sports betting, and a Federal appeals court put a halt to Delaware's plan. The court ruled that the law states that the exemption is limited to the parlay betting game previously run by the state, and no other type of sports wagering. So the state (which was depending on revenue from sports betting to help balance the budget) and the racetrack (which now has a sports book that's practically useless) are screwed. They did go ahead with a new version of the game they tried in 1976. I doubt it will be much more successful than the old one.
It's the NFL's stance that is particularly hypocritical. Football wouldn't be as popular without the betting (both legal and illegal) that revolves around the sport. The point spreads are widely available, even on shows by the TV networks carrying NFL games. The multitude of betting odds given on the Super Bowl -- even extending to things like the length of the national anthem -- give the game even more hype than it gets on its own. If the league is so concerned with gambling, why is ESPN and NBC and Fox allowed to hype the point spreads on their shows and websites? Why doesn't the NFL try and get a law passed to shut down the Vegas sports books?
Whether it's sports betting and buying lottery tickets online or including a public option in health care reform, the question is the same: if Canada can do it, why can't the United States of America do it?
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