The slippery slope strikes again. Legalizing gambling seemed harmless enough but these random prop bets are out of control and a big problem for collegiate sports and conferences like the MAC in particular where a player can make some life changing money pretty easily. Although as we've seen with some of the NBA & MLB cases, even having a lofty salary isn't enough to stop some.
I agree. For a long time, I was of the mind that legalizing gambling would bring things out of the shadows and create better enforcement mechanism to catch things like this.
But I think the sheer accessibility of sports betting seems to have increased the amount of fraud around it. And that's before you even consider how sports betting has impacted bankruptcy rates.
I'm not sure if I favor a full repeal of legalized sports betting -- I think it's hard to put that cat back in the bag -- but I certainly think there needs to be far more regulation and a vast reduction in the amount of prop bets available (betting on a single pitch in a baseball game is straight up addictive behavior and basically turns your phone into a slot machine). I'm also of the mind that The prediction markets -- like Kalshi -- which basically create a world where you can bet on anything are unregulatable and invite manipulation.
Well, IMHO, the whole rigmarole started when Ohio approved the state lottery. It was on the ballot in the early 1970s. I could not decide whether it would just make the then current level of gambling legal and help the state a little with revenue or whether it would create a whole new set of gamblers. If the former I would be for it; if the latter I would be against it. I was so torn about the issue that I left that choice blank on the ballot. I had no idea that the state would advertise like they do now to entice folks to gamble in the lottery. I should have anticipate that, but I didn't. Knowing what I know now I would have voted against it. In retrospect, I believe the approval of the state lottery put a kind of government stamp of approval on betting in general. That's when I believe the slippery slope that Andrew referred to began.
Let me add one further point. I have a cousin who is a gambling addict. At one time he was also an unreformed alcoholic, but he's now been sober for over ten years. He has not, however, been able to cure his gambling addiction. The next bet is always going to be the "big winner." He bets on everything from horse racing to poker to sports contests. It's a very ugly disease.