The ban on sports betting that had been in place in the United States had lasted at least 25 years before the Supreme Court recently declared it unconstitutional and overturned it. It’s important to note that this new ruling by the Supreme Court has declared open season on sport betting on professional, college and any other sporting event you can think of.
Whereas our team at Drazen Petrovic acknowledges that sports betting has some good benefits on professional sports, we must be cognizant of the potential negative effects it may have on college sports such as basketball in the US.
We are therefore going to look at four negative effects of betting in basketball in the US.
It will negatively impact the integrity of the game
Even when it was illegal, basketball betting had negatively impacted the integrity of the game of basketball in the US as a result of students or coaches throwing games in favor of some sports bettors because of the promise of money. This therefore meant that a number of students would not perform to their full potential or coaches would give misleading strategies to their teams hence soiling the game.
Potential loss of career opportunity
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) which is the official body that regulates athletics across the different colleges and other institutions across the United States takes integrity of sports very seriously therefore imposes very hefty penalties on college athletes caught cheating. Such penalties include a ban on players from ever going professional thus ending careers before they even start.
The problem of addiction
Problem gambling is a big mental health issue in the United States and college athletes as well as regular students haven’t been spared from falling victim. The rush that comes from sports betting especially when the stakes are high quickly leads to addiction because most of these kids never know how to identify the tell-tale signs early.
Loss of morals
A number of things associated with sports betting whether at college level or at professional level include lose morals. When people make too much money quickly, and its money they haven’t had to work hard for, they are likely to spend it on drugs, alcohol and illicit sexual activities. These are cases that are all too common which have resulted in people ending up on the wrong side of the law.
Whereas the lifting of the ban on gambling by the Supreme Court was a welcomed move, there is a need to follow through on the Court’s recommendation that the Federal Government should prioritize coming up with policy to regulate these activities, policies that can then be cascaded to states. With better policies, we can be able to reduce some of these negative effects that gambling comes with.
