I have a long and not-so-lucrative history of gambling on NBA basketball. This history began in 1992 when I covered my first game, the Milwaukee Bucks against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, and has continued in the 26 years since. The wager is always the same: $1.
And there is a very famous writer who covers the New York Knicks who still owes me a few bucks. I will not identify him by name because he works for a big old news conglomerate, but let’s just say he’s as prolific of a writer as anyone in the business, and he once covered a game in a shirt that he bought on 34th Street in Manhattan for $3 when one of the airlines lost his luggage.
Our routine was/is simple: We check the point spread, we alternate who makes the pick, and sometimes we throw a second prop bet into the mix to make things interesting. An old favorite was the over/under on the first time Dick Bavetta would call traveling. It was never a matter of if; it was always a matter of when.
Well, times change, and the stakes sometimes get raised. And that is certainly the case throughout the United States after the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act by a 6-3 vote on May 14 and set off a free-for-all in the sports gambling industry.
Justices/Fun-haters Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer dissented.
“Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s ruling. “Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution.”
For those who are unaware of the details, let me make it simple for you: Once upon a time there was a law that said you could only wager on sports in Nevada. But that law is not the law anymore. Furthermore, there is no uniform law — but there will eventually be 50 new ones in 50 different states, and if you expect the U.S. Congress to set a national standard and a national set of rules anytime soon, I would refer you to Congress’ track record of passing any sort of meaningful legislation over the past 10 years.
The only folks who have had less of a success ratio are the New York Knicks.
So we have a wide-open playing field as we all get ready for Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals tonight, with the Cleveland Cavaliers playing the Golden State Warriors at 9 p.m. EDT. The line opened with the Cavs an 11 1/2-point favorite, and the line was jumping around between 12 1/2 and 13 earlier today. It moved back to 11 1/2 points following the news that Kevin Love passed the NBA’s concussion protocol and became available to play.
That means a lot of folks are betting against LeBron James, which is a pretty stupid gambling strategy if you ask me. But more on that later.
Legalized gambling came to the United States a long, long time ago. We have the lottery, we have Indian casinos, we have non-Indian casinos, we have B-I-N-G-O parlors. We have thoroughbred racing. We have jai-alai … or do we? Haven’t been to one of those joints since I was 17, back when nobody checked ID for anything.
We have March Madness pools; we have Daily Fantasy Sports; have basement poker games; we have pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey games at birthday parties we throw for our 5-year-olds, and if you do not believe there is wagering taking place between parents at those excursions, let’s just say you are not hanging out with the same species of parents that I regularly run with.
So in a way, the legitimizing of pro sports gambling in the 49 states not named Nevada was a long time coming, and like it or not, it is part of the pro sports landscape for the forseeable future. All Puritans may now stop reading.
For the rest of you, here is what the future is going to look like: You are going to have a gambling app on your smartphone, and you are going to be able to wager on anything you want in real time from anyplace you are, provided you have a cell signal.
In the rest of the world, this is common. In America, what was once common — calling your bookie — is not going to be the new normal. Estimates have put the amount of money wagered annually in the U.S. at something in the ballpark of $500 billion, but nobody really knows.
Sports gambling has been a part of the black economy for so long, it predates Prohibition. And the fall of the Roman Empire. What you look at that era as a fractional part of recorded human history, it does not even register a discernable sliver on the homosapien pie chart.
Of a similar measurement is the number of people in human history who actually have gotten younger as they have aged, an elite group that includes the fictional Benjamin Button and the real-life LeBron James.
My sources around the NBA told me last summer that this would be LeBron’s final season with the Cavs, and I have not wavered from that stance. I gave a more detailed explanation during my brief stint covering the Sixers for NJ.com, and folks around the league are now trying to read the tea leaves after watching LeBron’s interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in which he was quite coy about how his relationship with owner Dan Gilbert would impact his next “Decision.”
In the hours, days, weeks, months and years ahead, we are all going to have our own decisions to make. What is our gambling budget? Which gambling site will we choose? (I strongly recommend BetDSI.com, which is based out of Costa Rica) Which app will be the most functional? How much vig is too much vig?
Sports betting can be fun, but it also can be a slippery slope. I managed that labyrinth by keeping things chill with my $1 fun bets.
Tonight, I step it up. I am going Money Line on the Cavs, because not only do you not want to bet against LeBron James; sometimes you want to bet on him when the payoff makes it a worthy wager. At +650 (a $100 bet pays $650 if it hits), that is what I would consider a “value bet.”
LeBron is playing for an inferior team; but he is not an inferior specimen. Tonight, I root for him — and this is a big deal, because sportswriters generally do not root for a specific team, they root for a good story. But I now get to hop off that old train and jump onto the juggernaut industry bandwagon with this new gig, and I will tell you what I am thinking as we barrel down this brand new road together if you promise to take my thought/advice with a grain of salt.
My job here is to make gambling fun, but to keep it in perspective. I’ve got one Benjamin on the line tonight, and that is enough action for me. As far as y’all go, make your own choices … but make them with one overriding thought in mind.
Sports gambling is the new normal in the United States, but what is “normal” is not the same as what is “common.” Keep that in mind, and please play safe.
Chris Sheridan, 53, is a veteran NBA writer who has worked for The Associated Press, ESPN, SheridanHoops.com and NJ.com. Follow him on Twitter.
