Bet on it: The explosion of sports gambling is not making games or lives better

There’s no better way to come off as a prude than to start off a column with the phrase, “I’m not a prude.” But honestly, I’m very libertarian in my thinking of how people dispose of their money and conduct themselves.

I couldn’t care less what you do, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else or violate their rights. As long as you don’t expect me to subsidize or praise your vices, or to pay to clean up your messes, go live your life. Ultimately, you’ll have to explain it to God, not to me.

But sometimes, issues related to personal conduct become big enough that I at least want to weigh in. Such is the case with the recent explosion of sports betting in the country. The industry is expanding rapidly, and it’s coming for your state legislators, if it hasn’t gotten them already.

The siren call of tax revenue from gambling is just too powerful to ignore, as states rush to legalize apps and locations so that “parlays” can be laid down in each moment of a football game, for example.

We’ve heard this song before — the promise of more revenue to legalize something that isn’t really a “big deal,” according to people standing to make fortunes off legalization. It wasn’t that long ago that marijuana was legalized in Colorado. Once the tax receipts were known, other states dove in.

Unfortunately, they didn’t wait to see if any of society’s ills were exacerbated by legalizing pot — psychosis, homelessness, addiction, etc. — they just saw dollar signs. I’m not making a moral judgement, but do you think civil society is better off with legalized marijuana?

Now, just as the skunky smell of cheap weed hovers over every streetcorner in D.C. and suburban Maryland, we’ve got gambling going on…everywhere.

You used to have to make a concerted effort — to travel to Atlantic City or Nevada — to bet on sports legally. Now, it’s on your phone and in your face. You can’t scroll through social media without being inundated with ads for sportsbooks. Billboards are covered in them. And you can’t watch any game without seeing major Hollywood celebrities pushing gambling, seemingly during every single commercial break.

Each league now has an official sportsbook partner. Somewhere outside of Cooperstown, Pete Rose is looking up the odds of his ever getting into the Hall of Fame on FanDuel, the official sportsbook of Major League Baseball.

Again, has this made life better in any way?

Ohio saw calls to gambling helplines triple immediately after it legalized sports betting; Michigan, which already had casinos, saw them double. These states aren’t unique.

In Michigan, they’ve since legalized full casino gambling apps for phones. No need to drive anywhere to play the slots or blackjack — just download and go. How long until that’s where you are? Will you be better off?

Maybe you don’t care — and maybe you don’t have to. But it is worth thinking about. If you don’t care because you don’t bet, you might want to consider the impact that this has on other things that do affect your life.

The college football playoffs are in the middle of a major controversy because undefeated Florida State was excluded from the playoffs, leapfrogged by 12-1 Alabama. The College Football Playoff Committee made the very unusual determination that, because Florida State has suffered a couple of injuries, it isn’t as good a team as it was earlier in the year.

When you earn a spot in a playoffs by going undefeated (their record included wins over two ranked teams), it seems rather unfair for a committee of interested parties to take that away because it doesn’t think you’ll do well, unless you have other things in mind than common sense and what’s right.

Which scenario do you think sportsbooks favor? One in which a team hampered by injuries gets blown out, or one where another team is inserted that the oddsmakers think will have a better shot at keeping it close?

I’m not saying gambling companies played a role in this decision, but the billions of dollars those companies stand to make certainly deserve consideration.

It is debatably just that Florida State got cheated. But the idea that easy gambling hasn’t improved sports or people’s lives really isn’t up for debate.

Most people can handle gambling, even if many can’t, and you shouldn’t govern to the worst-case scenario. But you should at least think about it as you govern, shouldn’t you? That’s the safer bet.

Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).