You can bet on it

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a federal ban on sports gambling is unconstitutional, a ruling that opens the floodgates to gambling on college and professional sport, and, presumably, on high school and middle school sports.

Officials estimate that $150 billion is spent annually on illegal sports gambling, and states are eager to get their hands on that kind of revenue. Thanks to ESPN, "March Madness" and other influences, college and professional sports have become America's favorite pastime. Legalized gambling on college football and basketball and on professional teams could further distract American minds toward sports fanaticism. Some sports leagues are eager to win a share of the gambling revenue their teams generate (although most are already phenomenally profitable). Other leagues are urging caution. Legal gambling could forever change the nature of the entertainment the leagues represent.

In the past 50 years, America has lost most of its aversion to gambling as a hazardous and anti-social offense against family responsibility, financial caution and moral integrity. Today, gambling in some form is allowed in almost every state. All but a handful of states sponsor state lotteries. Casinos operate in many states, either as businesses run by "sovereign" Indian tribes or as ordinary businesses. North Carolina and South Carolina in the past two decades fought off video poker, which had proved itself to be an insidious cancer against productive economy. Today, large casinos, state-sponsored lotteries, online betting and other forms of gambling hardly raise an eyebrow. Office pools for the World Series, Super Bowl or NCAA basketball are the new normal. The problem with gambling is that it is an unproductive activity. It produces nothing but winners (rare!) and losers (everyone else). Unlike manufacturing or even legal advice, gambling does not increase the availability of money; it nearly removes money from one person's pocket and put it in another person's pocket based on an outcome neither person controls.

The Supreme Court found a 1992 law banning sports betting in all states except Nevada (which was grandfathered in) went too far and infringed upon states' authority. Several states are eager to crank up their sports betting parlors and will likely be in business before the year is out. Both states and sports leagues are eager to get a cut of betting revenues.

Little attention is being paid to the potential corrosive effects on sports both amateur and professional. A missed shot or a dropped pass could swing billions of dollars in legal bets if sports gambling is legalized nationwide, and it is nearly impossible to prove that a player intentionally botched a play that could have won the game. Just one scandal could destroy the integrity of an entire league.

Consider Pete Rose, one of the best baseball players in Major League history. Rose is not in the Hall of Fame because he gambled on game results when he was a MLB manager (not a player). Major League Baseball punished Rose because his gambling defamed the integrity of the game he played so well. If sports betting is universally legalized, Rose's offense will be infinitesimal by comparison.