Legalized sports betting has become one of the most talked about subjects in recent years, especially with the situation surrounding Governor Chris Christie lifting the state's ban in New Jersey. Besides NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, it looks like Christie may have more support in his corner in the future.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred seems to be open to the idea of discussing the issue of legalized sports betting, which is only permitted in Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Delaware as federal statute mandates in the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. In September, Silver said sports betting in the United States is "inevitable" and if there happens to be more legalized betting in other states then the NBA "will ultimately participate in that," even though the NBA was rocked by the Tim Donaghy scandal in 2007.
Manfred voiced his openness regarding the subject when he spoke with ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on Thursday.
"Gambling in terms of our society has changed its presence on legalization," he said, via David Purdum of ESPN, "and I think it's important for there to be a conversation between me and the owners about what our institutional position will be."
The whole sports betting topic is perhaps vastly different for Major League Baseball. The sport has experienced serious incidents with betting that have compromised the integrity of the game, including the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 when the Chicago White Sox intentionally lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds as well as the lifetime ban of baseball's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, after it was discovered in 1989 the former player and manager bet on baseball while he was the skipper of the Reds. The MLB's Office of the Commissioner was established following the 1919 incident.
In the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, Silver said, "I have talked to other commissioners about [sports betting], and I leave it to them to make any public statements they want to make on it. I will say that certainly all of them ... have assigned people in their organizations to study the issue intensively."
Perhaps Manfred has delegated that duty upon a specific department, which has led him to speak publicly about the subject and plan a meeting with the league's owners about it. The advent of fantasy sports has been advocated by all of the professional sports leagues through advertising and sponsorship deals, which is essentially a form of gambling because participants usually play for money.
"Why don't we license this thing?" William T. 'Billy' Walters says in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine. Walters is one of the most successful sports bettors of all-time and is believed to have bet "more money more successfully than anyone in history," the magazine notes.
"Why don't we regulate it? Why don't we keep the bad guys out? Why don't we generate some jobs?" he continues. "Everybody in this country bets on sports."
If the commissioners band together and take a firm stance on the issue, the federal legislation could very well change. However, that's likely to take considerable time. Manfred is beginning the broach the subject in Major League Baseball.