NFL Tries To Keep A Lid On Legal Sports Betting

from the -250-to-succeed dept

Moves are afoot in Delaware to open legal sports books there, after the state's Supreme Court ruled that certain types of bets are constitutional. The state, like many others, sees taxes on gambling as a potential financial savior, but the NFL doesn't care. The league is threatening to file suit to try and stop the legalization of sports betting in Delaware, part of its long-running efforts to wipe out betting on its games. The league says that legalized gambling "will inevitably lead those gambling fans to question whether an erroneous officiating call or a dropped pass late in the game resulted from an honest mistake or an intentional act by a corrupt player or referee" -- but to suggest that such speculation won't exist otherwise is erroneous. It's really hard to see why the NFL (like other American sports leagues) thinks that keeping most betting (which is going to carry on anyway, regardless of its feelings on the matter) underground will prevent corruption, or even its mere appearance. It's a similar argument as that surrounding other forms of gambling, like internet poker: bringing the activities into a legal, regulated and monitored environment offers greater protection and far more benefits than keeping it in an unregulated, underground black market where anything goes. To this point, legal bookies can play a significant role in rooting out corrupt behavior by reporting suspicious betting patterns and other information. Illegal bookies aren't too likely to do that sort of thing.

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No, The FBI Probably Isn't Looking Into Your March Madness Brackets On Facebook

from the a-little-march-madness-exaggeration dept

Every year around this time, you can be sure of two types of stories: the first will be about how much productivity is lost thanks to March Madness (NCAA basketball tournament, for those who don't know) and the second is about how the customary March Madness pools are probably illegal gambling. This year, it's been turned up a notch, thanks to reports like this one in PC World claiming that the FBI is looking into the brackets available on Facebook thanks to a CBS Sportsline app. From reading the article, you'd think that the FBI is spending valuable resources trying to track down your office pool or the pool among your college buddies. Except... the article doesn't quote anyone at the FBI or even indicate that it tried to get the FBI to comment on the matter. It merely points to a Chicago Tribune article that says Facebook may face "scrutiny," but also provides no proof. That one at least has an FBI quote, but it's clearly in response to a question from the reporter over whether or not such pools violate the law -- not about whether the FBI is actually investigating Facebook.

The PC World report also points to a blog post saying that Facebook is coming under FBI scrutiny, but again provides no proof, other than some unsourced conjecture about the FBI "loitering" around Facebook -- and another link. This one goes to a report at a site called Online Casino Reports, which also gets a quote from the FBI -- but again, it appears to be in response to a question about the legality of betting pools, but not claiming that there's any sort of ongoing investigation. While there's a chance it's happening, there seems to be a bunch of folks reporting on this with no actual evidence that the FBI is looking at this. The only quote from the FBI came from the Chicago Tribune and was clearly in response to a question about the legality of betting on March Madness, not about any investigation into Facebook. So, chances are, the FBI isn't going to burst in on Mark Zuckerberg for putting a couple bucks on North Carolina to win it all -- or on you for picking Cornell (go Big Red) to beat Stanford this Thursday in the opening round, but if you want to be safe, maybe don't bet any money on it in the first place.

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