Sports betting is legal in only one state out of 50, Nevada, and betting on sports has long been every pro league’s biggest nightmare. But just last week, in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Ian Thomsen, NBA Commissioner David Stern softened his position on the issue of legalized gambling, referring to nationally legalized gambling on the NBA as a “possibility” that “may be a huge opportunity.” Here are some parts that stuck out to me:
I started the conversation with Stern by asking whether his league and others need to develop a comprehensive new approach to their relationship with sports betting. That approach has changed very little in the nine decades since the infamous “Black Sox” gamblers conspired to fix the 1919 World Series.
Stern agreed, in general, with that point of view. He responded by noting that other leagues around the world were addressing betting scandals similar to the NBA’s.
“We used [the Donaghy revelations] as an opportunity to get better, to coordinate with law enforcement and go through a variety of processes that I don’t necessarily want to detail publicly, but you are on ready alert,” he said. “And we’re mindful of what can happen, because we’re more-than-interested bystanders in the European football scandal. Two-hundred [soccer] games are being looked at by law enforcement across the continent. It’s fascinating to see what’s happening. And we’re mindful of the cricket [2007 World Cup match-fixing] issues, of the football referees in Germany — there’s a lot going on.”
Then he made a new point. “The betting issues are actually going to become more intense as states in the U.S. and governments in the world decide that the answers to all of their monetary shortfalls are the tax that is gambling.”
It continues:
I asked Stern if it is in the best interests of his league to seek legalization of sports betting. He sighed with his head down, as if to emphasize the gravity of what he was going to say.
“It has been a matter of league policy to answer that question, ‘No,’ ” he said. “But I think that that league policy was formulated at a time when gambling was far less widespread — even legally.”
He went on to provide a brief lesson in history involving J. Walter Kennedy, the NBA commissioner from 1963-75. “Walter Kennedy testified in Congress many years ago, probably over 40, that gambling — any gambling, not just sports — should not be allowed in Atlantic City, that gambling shouldn’t be expanded,” said Stern, who was a lawyer for the NBA at that time. “I remember it because I wrote a statement. It was the U.S. association of attorneys general, the U.S. attorneys association, the association of chiefs of police, the clergy of all denominations — all lined up to say that expanding [was wrong] … and I don’t think lotteries were legal back then.
“So that was the sin. And that’s the way sports grew up in their opposition.”
What has changed, Stern acknowledged, is that the NBA can no longer oppose gambling on moral grounds.
