Gambling Takes Another NFL Player Down

 The institutional and cultural conflicts inherent in the professional sports leagues and NCAA with respect to gambling continue to take a toll on the people who generate the income from these activities—the players themselves. It seems that virtually all major sports activities in the US, collegiate and professional, are now reaping significant money from sports gambling. Every NFL game is loaded with sports book advertisements. As for the “amateur” NCAA, swing by Vegas on the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament to get a picture of how big gambling is on collegiate athletics.

Yet all professional sports leagues and the NCAA prohibit betting in one form or another by the athletes themselves. And enforcement of these prohibitions regularly results in the suspensions of players taking advantage of an activity that their leagues actively promote.

And sometimes, worse than suspensions. Case in point--Kayshon Boutte, formerly of the LSU Tigers and currently an NFL wide receiver with the Patriots. But, as so many coaches have said, NFL stands for “not for long”, and that is likely the situation with Mr. Boutte, who was arrested for making bets while a collegiate athlete, in some cases on games involving his own team. The details are in the story, but it's clear from the allegations that Mr. Boutte has a gambling problem, one that the NFL security people are likely aware of. Someone with this type of issue represents a clear threat not only to the integrity of the game but to potentially billions of dollars in advertising and betting revenue. All of that gambling revenue, as well as a significant portion of fan interest, would melt away in the face of demonstrated allegations that players were betting on each other and themselves, with the obvious impact on scores and performance.

I suspect this conundrum of needing the revenue from sports betting while at the same time limiting its reach into the player ranks will continue indefinitely. There is simply too much money in gambling and its potential taxation for the people who would normally regulate this kind of thing--the states and the leagues themselves--to close up the Pandora's box that's been opened.