- Feb 5, 2002
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Sports gambling seems to be everywhere, especially when watching or listening to sports — both collegiate and professional. In fact, during March Madness season, nearly 68 million Americans are expected to wager over $15 billion on the NCAA basketball tournament.
Yet few people besides key stakeholders with lots of money to make are paying attention to how the legal landscape of sports gambling is unfolding in our state capitols since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), allowing states to create their own regulatory frameworks around sports gambling.
This issue, often playing out behind the scenes, is already repeating both the predatory aspects of the Big Tobacco scandal while exacerbating addiction like the opioid crisis. In the next 10 years, it is predicted to absorb 1 trillion dollars in revenue. More and more people are calling legalization a huge mistake.
Fortunately, one Catholic, Les Bernal, is serving as a resource to those working to prevent more people from being victimized. Bernal is the national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a national advocacy organization that is exposing the harms of online sports gambling. He recently joined my OSV podcast, Catholic in America, to explain why he is so passionate about gambling.
In the years since PASPA, 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports gambling in some form. Some states allow sports gambling at physical sites, such as tribal casinos. Others allow it online as well through apps such as DraftKings or MGM.
Predatory gambling, according to Bernal, is not church bingo, a friendly poker game, meat raffles, or even office pool NCAA tournament brackets. There is no “house,” and these are private, social forms of gambling. Even horse racing is called pari-mutuel betting, where people bet against others.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Yet few people besides key stakeholders with lots of money to make are paying attention to how the legal landscape of sports gambling is unfolding in our state capitols since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), allowing states to create their own regulatory frameworks around sports gambling.
This issue, often playing out behind the scenes, is already repeating both the predatory aspects of the Big Tobacco scandal while exacerbating addiction like the opioid crisis. In the next 10 years, it is predicted to absorb 1 trillion dollars in revenue. More and more people are calling legalization a huge mistake.
Fortunately, one Catholic, Les Bernal, is serving as a resource to those working to prevent more people from being victimized. Bernal is the national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a national advocacy organization that is exposing the harms of online sports gambling. He recently joined my OSV podcast, Catholic in America, to explain why he is so passionate about gambling.
In the years since PASPA, 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports gambling in some form. Some states allow sports gambling at physical sites, such as tribal casinos. Others allow it online as well through apps such as DraftKings or MGM.
Predatory gambling, according to Bernal, is not church bingo, a friendly poker game, meat raffles, or even office pool NCAA tournament brackets. There is no “house,” and these are private, social forms of gambling. Even horse racing is called pari-mutuel betting, where people bet against others.
‘Becoming an enslavement’
Continued below.
With sports gambling everywhere, should Catholics support it?
Legalized sports gambling is growing, posing risks of addiction and harm, with advocates like Les Bernal working to protect the vulnerable.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
