With Vegas so close, Super Bowl gamblers may be more tempted
By Dan Bickley, The Arizona Republic
LAS VEGAS - Every Super Bowl comes with a warning label and a gambling story. Here's the short version:
Gambling is a thrill ride. Gambling is dangerous. Gambling can make you temporarily rich. But if the hook gets lodged in your mouth, it will make you broke as a joke, or worse.
Yet as Super Bowl XLII approaches, there are some new twists to an old story.
"I've already talked with the directors of most major books in town, and this will be the largest wagered Super Bowl in the history of legal sports gambling," said renowned handicapper Brandon Lang, whose life was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the 2005 film, Two for the Money. "This one is going to be huge."
Welcome to Sin City
Giant cranes and construction projects pierce the open sky. Hardhats are almost required when walking the fabled Strip. Recession or not, no one's going broke in the casino business.
One day soon, the NBA might give Las Vegas a basketball team. The NHL might also find a home here, in a place once considered taboo by major professional sports leagues. And this weekend, with the big game just 249 miles down the road, casinos are bracing for unprecedented action.
Not that the locals are all that enthused.
"This place is getting out of control," cab driver Larry Nielson said. "I hate the people here. They're all angry. Being a gambler is like being an alcoholic, only worse. And I should know. I was both."
Given the geographical proximity of the game, casino operators expect a nice slice of stopover business from high rollers and football fans making their way to Glendale, Ariz. The allure of the unbeaten New England Patriots, as well as the big-city New York Giants, brings more juice to the table.
And when they turn out the lights at University of Phoenix Stadium, the state of Nevada - the only state where gambling on sporting events is legal - hopes to surpass the $100 million barrier in Super Bowl wagering, smashing the previous record of $94.5 million set two years ago when the Steelers beat the Seahawks.
Even without the Cinderella tale of Brett Favre and the Packers, the swirl of big money is in the air. Such is America's fixation with gambling.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. If they didn't have betting on sports, they'd be building bleachers, not stadiums," Lang said.
Point and click
As big as Vegas seems, the wagering here is just a ripple in the gambling pool. Even with the huge increase in wagering over Super Bowl week - about $40 million changes hands on a typical NFL weekend compared with the $100 million expected for Sunday's game - it's nothing compared with the staggering amount of overall wagering.
That number, comprised from shadowy street bets to Internet gambling, is estimated at around $6 billion.
"The biggest worry I have is the youth today," said Arnie Wexler, a reformed gambler turned industry consultant. "I run a national hotline, and one-third of the calls coming in are from kids between the ages of 12 and 25, or the parents of these kids. The real problem is the Internet, this poker (stuff)."
Data gathered from his hotline (1-888-LAST-BET) is somewhat chilling: Forty-eight percent of the people who gamble also bet on sports, while 33% of the gamblers are under the age of 25.
"I know we've become more accepting of gambling, that legislators have found it easier to put in gambling than raise taxes," Wexler said. "But no one talks about the danger or the addiction that comes with it. One time, I told my wife I was taking my daughter to the park. I went right to the pay phone and bet $10,000 with a bookmaker. And if I lost 10 cents in that phone booth, I couldn't call him back.
"Look, I'm not running around trying to close casinos or shoot lottery commissioners or anything. But we've got to be responsible here."
At last count, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission said there are 5 million compulsive gamblers and 15 million at risk in this country. And the sheer volume of betting raises many uncomfortable questions: How many athletes and referees are betting online, on their own games? How many scandals are out there, waiting to be unearthed? And where are the safeguards?
On a less serious note, what would this game be without gambling? How big would the NFL be if there were no office pools, fantasy teams and the endless buffet of wagers?
"Without gambling in football, you've got soccer," Wexler said.
There is no doubting the huge shift in our society's views and attitudes on gambling. The gambling industry grew "tenfold" from 1975-97, according to the National Gambling Impact Study, while revenue from legal wagering grew 1,600%.
League commissioners that once expounded on the dangers of gambling are now embracing Las Vegas. NBA boss David Stern decided to rewrite his rulebook rather than penalize referees for minor gambling offenses. Meanwhile, at this year's Super Bowl, the NFC team is actually staying at a resort that features a casino.
"It's a really delicate dance for the sporting leagues," said David Carter, founder of The Sports Business Group and executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. "But society has embraced gambling much more than we used to. I mean, everybody is in an office pool. And if you're not in an office pool, people think something's wrong with you."
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
New England Patriots Make Bookies Nervous: Joe Saumarez-Smith
Commentary by Joe Saumarez-Smith
Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The National Football League playoffs are always a time of anxiety for bettors and bookies. This year the New England Patriots are making sportsbooks more nervous than usual.
For bettors, it is the last 11 games of pro football betting before six months of deprivation. This means the average bettor tends to bet larger amounts on the playoff games than during the regular season.
Bookies fear that if all four favorites cover the point spread in this weekend's wildcard games, at least a month's profits will be wiped out. And if the undefeated Patriots go on to win the Super Bowl and complete the "perfect'' season, bookies' annual profits will be considerably below projections.
The Patriots have been a thorn in the bookies' side all season. They opened up at 9-2 favorites pre-season and the odds on them winning the Super Bowl in Arizona on Feb. 3 have shortened ever since. By Week 6 they were offered at just 1-1 (bet $100 to make $100 profit) and by Week 10 they were odds-on, meaning you have to stake a greater amount than the amount you get back in profit when the bet wins.
Now they are at best odds of 8-11, although they have been as short as 1-2 before a few close shaves in their most recent games against theoretically weaker opponents.
'Hammered'
"All the money has been for the Patriots,'' says Patrick Jay, director of sports betting at Ladbrokes Plc, one of the world's largest legal bookmakers. "Week after week we have been hammered by them and if they go on to win the Super Bowl then it will cost bookmakers worldwide tens of millions of dollars.''
To illustrate just how dominant the Patriots are, of the 12 teams to make the playoffs only six are at shorter odds now to win the Super Bowl than they were at the start of the season.
For those looking to bet on a game-by-game basis during the post-season, there are some important statistics worth considering.
Phil Agius, NFL editor of sports betting newspaper Racing Post, says, "In the excitement of the NFL playoffs starting it is important for bettors to keep their feet on the ground and remember that the likely Super Bowl winners probably aren't even in action until next week. In four of the last 10 years none of the eight teams in action on wildcard weekend reached the Super Bowl.''
Unattractive Bets
Agius warns bettors not to get carried away by any impressive-looking results this weekend because the winners are likely to be brought back down to earth seven days later.
He also points out that low-seeded teams in the National Football Conference are statistically unattractive to bet on. "Only one third seed or below from the NFC has reached the Super Bowl in the last 10 years,'' Agius said. That's bad news for supporters of the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Agius said.
Chris David, sports editorial director for VegasInsider.com, says he favors teams with a strong record on the road.
In the American Football Conference, the Patriots (8-0), Indianapolis Colts (7-1), Jacksonville Jaguars (5-3) and Tennessee Titans (5-3) have winning records away from home. In the NFC, only the Dallas Cowboys (7-1), Giants (7-1) and Green Bay Packers (6-2) have winning records.
David cites the Buccaneers (3-5) and Seahawks (3-5) as possibly being overrated by the bookies this weekend because of their home advantage.
Giants, Jaguars
"If you look at the Giants, they lost their first road game of the season to Dallas and since then have won every single one,'' he says. "They look like great value getting a three-point start this weekend in Tampa.''
David also likes the Jaguars. "They were a point-spread- covering machine prior to Week 17 with seven straight wins and covers. When a team consistently outperforms the line, then you should pay attention.''
I have a small investment in the Packers to win the Super Bowl at 40-1 and agree that the Giants look like great value this weekend.
When I did my own personal power ratings of possible matches prior to the Vegas lines being released, I made the Giants 1-point favorites for the game.
If I had to have another wager, I would take the Redskins +4 as I think history may show that the NFC East was uncharacteristically competitive this season and that their 9-7 record might have been slightly unflattering.
Wildcard games betting lines:
Saturday, Jan. 5: Washington Redskins (+4) vs. Seattle Seahawks (-4).
Sunday, Jan. 6: Jacksonville Jaguars (-1.5) vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (+1.5); New York Giants (+3) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3); Tennessee Titans (+9) vs. San Diego Chargers (-9).
(Joe Saumarez-Smith is chief executive officer of Sports Gaming, a U.K. management consulting firm to the gaming industry. He also owns European online bingo companies and odds comparison Web sites. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Joe Saumarez-Smith at jssmith15@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 4, 2008 00:28 EST
(c) 2008 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I Bet You Look Good in the Sportsbook
December 10th, 2007 by Andrew Braithwaite
LAS VEGAS, NV-There's a saying in sports, especially if you're a cocky bastard: "Don't call it a comeback, 'cause I never left."
Unfortunately, that's exactly what Vegas, the American goddess of Fortune, announced to me last Sunday between 3:00 and 4:00pm Pacific Standard Time as the NFL's late games were concluding at the Las Vegas Hilton's Sportsbook.
After three days of low-stakes blackjack and craps on my annual trip to America's hedonistic playground, I was down about $250 to her Vegasness (although she had mercifully allowed me to escape from a $350 hole with an inspired run of good luck at a blackjack table on Saturday morning at the Hard Rock Hotel). After dropping $100 in about six hands to a tall, blonde, slightly grizzled dealer named Lisa, I got up from a table that soon re-formed to contain five of my best college friends.
It was the first time they'd all sat at the same table all weekend, and even though I'd hit my maximum loss figure for the morning, my buddy Max bullied me into sitting back down to the six-man table, which was clearly the right thing to do. Blackjack is a game of karma and runs, and suddenly I was hitting blackjacks left and right, winning the double-downs I'd been missing all weekend. When Lisa got up and a beefy guy named Sean stepped in to deal, I mentioned to him that Lisa had been dealing me a lot of first-card aces. "Let's see if we can keep this going, Sean," I told him. Single women, if you're reading this right now, call my dealer friend Sean in Las Vegas - he's a great listener.
Where Vegas really hurt me last weekend wasn't at the blackjack or craps tables, though. Ever since my cherry-busting trip to Vegas three years ago, when I picked five or six NHL games right and came home with some much-needed Christmas shopping money, I've been a sucker for action in the sports book, especially on underdogs. (I don't know if you know this, but betting on sports is legal in the state of Nevada. Seriously. I'm not making this up.)
Clearly, I had a heavy wad of cotton substituting for grey matter in the part of his brain dedicated to sporting intuition last weekend, because from the outset I was doomed by a series of betting gaffes and bad luck. After winning my first two bets on Friday night behind the Devils and the Celtics - giving a mere three points to a terrible Miami Heat team (mindblowing, really) - I followed up with two losses and then got sucked into what Malcolm Gladwell would call a blink moment of inspiration.
Sitting at a blackjack table, I inexplicably recalled a pre-game TV shot I'd seen several hours earlier during the Celtics game, of Kobe Bryant strutting into the dressing rooms at the Salt Lake City arena wearing a flamboyant leopard-skin pimp jacket - not something you see every day in Utah. "Wait a minute," the cerebral cotton wad deduced, "Kobe's looking bad-ass tonight. He's going to drop 70 on the Jazz." The game started in four minutes, so I picked up my chips, sprinted to the sports book and layed money on my man Kobe to win outright on the road against one of the league's top teams. Final score: Jazz 120, Lakers 96.
I blew all three of my Saturday bets as well, including an annual tradition of losing money on my favourite NCAA football team, the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, who overcame a 21-point deficit against the Washington Huskies to complete their first-ever perfect 12-0 season, but failed to cover a 13.5-point spread when a defensive back took a knee on a late-game interception return that would have pushed the margin of victory to 14. Vegas is a fun place to be with your friends, but it's better when the goddess isn't handing it to you on every bet you make. By the time we hopped in a cab on Sunday morning to head to the Las Vegas Hilton, I was feeling rather ambivalent about a whole day's worth of betting on the NFL .
We laid our bets in the Hilton's sports book, but didn't actually stay there to watch the games: Football Sundays, with 11 screens and two levels of seating, is in fact hosted in the the hotel's 1,700-seat event theatre. By 9:30 the place was nearly packed - we were in the Pacific time zone, so the NFL's early games start at 10am local time - with mostly middle-aged male fans in team jerseys downing $1 hot dogs and beers for breakfast.
A man with a ridiculous pencil-thin moustache welcomed us to the theatre by informing me that we were shaking hands with history: this was the room where Barry Manilow performs 37 shows a week to sold-out crowds. "He did a show last night, in fact," he told us. "I was here. Amazing!" (To this day, I still haven't washed the pants that sat in Barry's theatre chairs – not for any mystical, obsessed-fan reason, but simply because I'm lazy.)
With my bad luck over the first three days a known quantity to my comrades, I did the honourable thing and stayed away from several consensus pick games, hoping not to jinx my friends' wagers. And then a funny thing happened: we hit on almost all the early games. It started out slowly, as all football bets do since games are sixty minutes long and early leads can evaporate quickly. But the Jets, Vikings and the Rams turned early margins into blowouts, and even my picks of the Titans and the Jaguars came through with big plays in the late going. Things were going so well for us, not even exchanges like this could cripple our final outcome...
Max (who'd also bet on the Jaguars): Did you know that the Jags' quarterback hasn't thrown an interception all season?
Me: I can't believe you just said that out loud. What's wrong with you?
David Garrard: [Throws first interception of the year on very next play.]
In all, my five-man crew went 11-2 in the early games. Finally, we were sticking it to Old Lady Vegas! High fives were in plentiful supply, we doubled down on $1 hot dogs, and we were already calculating what our revised loss totals for the trip would be after we swept the afternoon slate of games.
This overt expression of pride angered Vegas.
In retrospect, it was insane for us not to see a huge reversal coming. Despite the morning's success, I kept a level head and stayed away from everyone's Lock Of The Week game, with the Cleveland Browns everyone's cinch pick to win at Arizona. Who was I to jinx the game ESPN's Bill Simmons called "My favorite game on the board and my single favourite pick of the season other than the Pats over the Chargers in Week 2. In fact, I'm making this my Alcoa Gambling Lock of the Year. The Browns are going to win and cover."
So what happened? The Browns went down 14-0 in 10 minutes and never recovered. The Bears (who I backed) blew a nine–point lead in the final seven minutes to the New York Giants and Eli Manning, my most hated team and quarterback in the league, respectively. The disappointing Saints (who I also backed, because I’m a dummy) blew a winnable home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who started their backup QB, after Reggie Bush lost a fumble on a botched reverse late in the game with the Saints leading. Even Denver fell to a 3-8 Raiders team that had lost its last five games to the Broncos. I couldn't make this stuff up.
And when the smoke had cleared, our crew had gone 1-9 in the late games. The only winning bet? Our friend Rob, who put money on the Giants before skipping out for his flight back to North Carolina, and wasn't even around to savour the adrenaline rush of an Eli Manning's late-game comeback in Vegas - he left the wager stub with our friend Matty, a huge Bears fan from Chicago who actually had to take Rob's bet to the ticket window to cash it. (The best analogy we could come up with: if Al Gore had to personally drive Tipper to the White House to be the "entertainment" at George Bush's inauguration after-party.)
Yes, it's one of the great sporting burn-lines, and we heard it loud and clear last weekend. "Don't call it a comeback," Vegas announced over the sports book's PA system, in her most petty, vengeful voice. "I never left."
(c)2007 The Walrus Foundation
Halftime Betting
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Years ago if a gambler was looking to make a wager on a game there was only one way to go about it. Now things have changed dramatically with halftime betting. A sports gambler can now wager on the first half or the second half of a football game as well as the entire game. This feature at first was not widely accepted and only offered by a few sportsbooks but since then the option has boomed and nearly every sportsbook in the industry has offered it. It makes sense to offer this option because it gives the player more options and it gives the sportsbook more variety and another way to make money off the professional and recreational gambler alike. The trick for the gambler is to find angles and edges that will help them gain an advantage when it comes to betting on the halves of a football game. This article will cover some angles that will help the sports gambler gain an advantage over the sportsbook and make some money in the process.
Attack the game: Before looking to make a wager on a half in a game it is best to look at the entire line and game. If you don’t study the game and know the game you will have trouble reading the halves. Learning as much as possible about the game overall will help when it is time to make a selection on a game.
First things first: When playing the first half I look at two things present and the past. Look at the tendency of a professional team and how they have done in the first half in the past. Many coaches and players are known for playing their best ball in the first half and you can use that to your advantage. Sports information web sites have begun to add first half statistics to their repertoire. This is the second step, after the season has been underway you can match statistics up head-to-head and see how teams fare in the second half.
Second Half: Second half betting has become one of the most popular ways to wager on the National Football League. The NFL has always been the most popular sport to wager on but this makes it better than ever. Here are a few ways you can find a edge to produce money in the second half.
Watch the game: This one is simple but watching the game will help tremendously as you can take note of how teams are playing or any injuries that take place throughout the game. The gambler is handicapped severely if they are not able to watch or listen to the game to aid them in a second half wager.
Take the whole game: A wager on the entire game is a good thing if you plan on betting the halves. The reason is that this will allow you to hedge your bets. Many gamblers don’t like to hedge but the bottom line is that hedging is smart because it saves the gambler risk and will make you money in the long run. Technically if you bet the game and you want to bet the half it also allows the gambler to double up on the game if you like to double your risk instead of hedge it.
This is just the basics of betting halves of football games. When you are making your very first few wagers on a football game you should approach them carefully and start off with small wagers until you get a good feel for how they work and how you can utilize them in your game plan when it comes to sports wagering. Once you have this down it will become a crucial part of your arsenal and will aid in building your bankroll.
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Tocchet's gambling and willingness to help others wager have left a mark
The NHL looked to close the door on the Rick Tocchet betting scandal Thursday, insisting that the integrity of the game has not been harmed.
But it is clear that Tocchet's gambling and willingness to help others wager have left a mark, tarnishing the league and casting some of its inhabitants - perhaps unfairly - in an unflattering light.
Hired by the league to lead an internal investigation, former Unabomber prosecutor Robert Cleary interviewed 90 people to find out the extent of Tocchet's taint. While some were directly or indirectly involved in the betting allegations, most were former teammates and club officials quizzed as to Tocchet's modus operandi.
The list of former associates includes Sean Burke, Bob Clark, Donald Brashear, Peter Forsberg, Simon Gagne, Ken Hitchcock, Reggie Lemelin, John LeClair, Eric Lindros, Mark Recchi and Keith Tkachuk.
Tocchet comes across as a gambler but no criminal mastermind. He placed bets with James Harney and referred a "small number of individuals" (said to be NHL players and Janet Jones Gretzky) to the then-New Jersey state trooper so they could bet themselves.
Tocchet said he started betting with Harney in 2000 or 2001, saying the fact he was in law enforcement provided "a sense of safety." The report says Tocchet "maintained a financial interest in the betting activity" of those he referred to Harney.
None of the bets were on hockey, the report says.
"We concluded that Tocchet's illegal bookmaking activity was isolated in scope and at no point in time affected the integrity of NHL games," Cleary states.
Still, damage has been done for a league struggling to make headlines for the right reasons south of the border.
"Mr. Tocchet's actions and poor judgment giving rise to these charges ... unfairly cast an unfavourable and negative light on our game and some of the great people in our game," commissioner Gary Bettman said in his statement Thursday.
"Mr. Tocchet's acknowledged conduct gave rise to a 'story' that has lingered for more than a year and a half, and has created an environment which left not only him but the entire National Hockey League vulnerable to embarrassment, to accusations of scandal, to suspicions pertaining to the integrity of NHL competition, and to the possibility of diminished respect in the eyes of the public."
Frustration seems to bubble below the surface of Bettman's statement: frustration that Tocchet could have been so stupid, frustration at New Jersey authorities' initial wide-ranging and damning claims, frustration that Tocchet essentially ignored the NHL's wishes while on leave of absence by staying in contact with those in the league and by taking part in the World Series of Poker.
Mainly it's frustration that his league has been needlessly dragged through the mud, thanks to Tocchet.
The Cleary report found no evidence of betting on hockey by NHL personnel and no ties between Tocchet's activity and organized crime.
It did find "a small group of current and former NHL players" placed bets, although none on hockey.
The report also said:
-Then Coyotes GM Michael Barnett placed a $1,000 bet on the 2006 Super Bowl through Tocchet, believing Tocchet had a sports betting connection in Las Vegas.
-Coyotes coach and part-owner Wayne Gretzky knew Tocchet gambled as a hobby and enjoyed betting on football. Gretzky also knew his wife Janet had placed bets on the 2006 Super Bowl through Tocchet. "We found no evidence to suggest that (Wayne) Gretzky has ever placed sports bets, either through Tocchet, or otherwise."
-Janet Jones Gretzky told investigators she bet on the 2006 NFL playoffs and Super Bowl with Tocchet's assistance. She said she would discuss bets with Tocchet and he would then place them with Harney. The report said she did not believe Tocchet placed bets for other individuals.
-Coyotes players and past teammates were unaware that Tocchet was involved in bookmaking. "There was knowledge among these individuals that Tocchet sometimes gambled on football and basketball, but never hockey."
Harney got five years in jail, Tocchet two years probation.
Tocchet can return to the league on Feb. 7, providing he meets certain conditions. It's clear it will take a lot longer to win Bettman over, even if he adheres to the required guidelines.
"I remain concerned as to whether Mr. Tocchet is adequately sensitive to the seriousness of the admitted misconduct, especially in the context of his role as a highly visible and prominent employee in a professional sports league," Bettman said.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
NFL: Mike Finger's NFL picks
Web Posted: 10/26/2007 11:37 PM CDT
Mike Finger
San Antonio Express-News
The World League of American Football didn't work. Neither did NFL Europe. But now, like a stubborn general determined to prove that invading Russia in the winter isn't such a bad idea, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is making another attempt to get Europeans to embrace a sport they've long proven to have little interest in.
So this weekend we're sending the Giants and Dolphins to London to make an impression, which is curious, because San Antonio wouldn't send a Taco Bell burrito abroad to show people what Tex-Mex is like. Seems like you'd want to show off the best you have to offer, or at least a team not quarterbacked by Cleo Lemon, but I suppose the British might not be able to tell the difference.
Even so, the least we can do is send them a decent fajita.
On to the Week 8 picks:
Giants (-9.5) 27, Dolphins 13: When they landed in London, Miami players thought the exchange rate made the dollar look bad. And that was before they saw what it did to Lemon's passer rating.
Browns (-3) 17, Rams 9: Steven Jackson is finally coming back to the Rams this week, which is kind of like Chevy Chase returning to Saturday Night Live. Isn't it a bit too late for this?
Titans (-7.5) 24, Raiders 12: Vince is back, and as always, he's ready to cover.
Vikings (+1) 16, Eagles 13: The biggest news either of these teams made this week was Minnesota's signing of punter Chris Kluwe to a six-year contract extension. So the Vikings have that going for them, which is nice.
Bengals (+3.5) 28, Steelers 20: Desperate times call for desperate measures in Cincinnati. And for once, that won't translate into someone holding up a liquor store.
Jets 17, Bills (+3) 16: The Associated Press reported this week that by starting Trent Edwards over J.P. Losman, the Bills could save up to $3 million in incentives in Losman's contract. Coincidentally, CBS can save about that much if they choose not to broadcast this atrocity.
Bears (-5) 23, Lions 17: How bad are the offenses in the NFL these days? Brian Griese isn't even one of the five worst quarterbacks starting this weekend.
Colts 26, Panthers (+6.5) 20: Neither is Vinny Testaverde.
Chargers (no line) 24, Texans 10: But Sage Rosenfels is.
Buccaneers 14, Jaguars (+4) 13: And so is some guy named Quinn Gray. Before this week, everyone just assumed he was a sports coat designer.
Saints (-3) 20, 49ers 16: From 0-4 to the postseason? New Orleans still has a shot.
Patriots 30, Redskins (+16.5) 14: I hate roulette. It's a sucker's game. Some of the worst odds you'll find in any casino. But you know how the roulette tables have that digital board showing the past dozen or so numbers, and sometimes you'll walk by and notice that red has hit 10 consecutive times, and you just know the next number is going to be black?
That's what picking against the Patriots is like. You figure there's no way they can keep covering two-touchdown spreads every week. So you keep betting black. And they keep covering anyway.
But red has to hit sometime. It just has to.
Right?
Broncos (-3) 24, Packers 20: Every other smart aleck in America has already made the go-with-Travis-Henry-on-Breeders'-Cup-weekend joke. This is kind of sad, because it means no one has any need for Shawn Kemp anymore.
Last week: 10-4 straight-up, 7-7 against the spread.
Season: 62-39 straight-up, 43-52-6 against the spread.
Portions (c) 2007 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News. All rights reserved.
Sports Fans' Disinterest Grows With More Scandals, Poll Finds
By Mason Levinson
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Scandals throughout professional athletics this year have left U.S. fans sour and increasingly disinterested in sports, a new poll found.
More than one in five fans has less interest in sports in wake of transgressions including gambling, steroid use, cheating and dogfighting, according to a poll conducted by Seton Hall University and the Sharkey Institute.
The gambling scandal surrounding National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy left 40 percent of sports fans believing that wagering among officials is widespread in the league, the poll found.
``Whether it's steroids, gambling, or dogfighting, significant numbers of people are turned off by it,'' Rick Gentile, the poll's director, said in a telephone interview. ``Sports in general, and the NBA in particular, have a lot of cleaning up to do.''
Almost 900 people across the U.S. were telephoned Oct. 2-4 for the study, with 558 identifying themselves as sports fans.
Asked which has done the most harm to its sport, it was a near-even split between the scandals in the NBA, Major League Baseball and National Football League. Thirty-three percent said the scandal involving Donaghy was the worst, followed by Barry Bonds's link to steroid use (32 percent), and NFL quarterback Michael Vick's dogfighting ring (29 percent).
Donaghy, who pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to fraud and conspiracy charges for betting on basketball games, most concerned 18-to-44 year-olds, about half of whom felt that gambling was widespread among the league's officials.
E-mail messages seeking comment from NBA spokesmen Tim Frank and Mark Broussard weren't immediately returned.
Effect of Gambling Scandal
``I've been the sports industry forever and we dance around the gambling issue,'' said Gentile, a former executive producer at CBS Sports. ``There's a feeling that people believe that gambling is more impacting than we've thought.''
Demonstrating the public's low tolerance for misbehavior by athletes, 87 percent said they would rather see a star player on their favorite team get caught for using performance-enhancing drugs than win a championship with that athlete.
The NFL has been plagued by misbehavior throughout its ranks, with league Commissioner Roger Goodell handing down significant penalties to players such as Vick, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of running an interstate dogfighting ring.
Pacman Jones was given a 16-game ban after being arrested five times in about two years, Tank Johnson was disciplined for violating probation on a weapons charge, and Chris Henry was suspended after being arrested four times in a 14-month period on charges that included drunken driving and providing alcohol to minors.
Patriots' Spying
Most recently, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 for spying on New York Jets coaches during a game with video recorders, the maximum fine under NFL bylaws.
Seton Hall's poll found that 57 percent of people feel sign-stealing in football is cheating, while only 21 percent of those who think it is ``just part of the game'' believe using videotape is permissible.
Bonds is just one of many players being investigated for possible steroid use by Major League Baseball, which hired former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to lead an independent probe of the issue.
Participants in the Seton Hall survey supported a recent Internet vote that sent Bonds's record-breaking 756th home run ball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with an asterisk. Forty-four percent of Seton Hall's respondents wanted the ball donated with an asterisk, while 37 percent said it should not be marked.
Forty-seven percent of the more than 10 million who participated in the on-line survey sponsored by fashion designer Mark Ecko wanted the ball branded with an asterisk, 34 percent wanted to donate the ball without an asterisk and 19 percent said it should be sent into space on a rocket.
Additionally, thirty-nine percent of people polled by Seton Hall think baseball players involved in drug scandals are treated more harshly by the fans and media, a number that climbed to 60 percent when asked of African-Americans.
(c) 2007 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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