WSJ Highlights Growing Concern Over Sports Gambling Scandals
Last week The Wall Street Journal highlighted how “spot-fixing” is a growing concern when it comes to gambling on professional sports.
“Spot-fixing” is a type of gambling fraud that involves manipulating small events during a game. Most of the time, spot-fixing is difficult to notice, because it centers on things that don’t clearly affect the outcome of the game — like a specific pitch or kick in a ballgame.
Spot-fixing is particularly concerning given that modern sports betting lets gamblers wager on nearly every aspect of a game — not just its final score.
The WSJ reports Major League Baseball recently “placed Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz on leave amid an investigation into suspicious betting activity surrounding his pitches.” Observers noticed unusual wagers placed on specific pitches that Ortiz threw outside the strike zone during ballgames on June 15 and 27. The incident is currently under investigation.
Thanks to smartphones, sports betting it’s now possible for people to gamble — and lose — on sporting events from anywhere with Wi-Fi or cell service.
Nationwide, sports betting is now legal in most states — including Arkansas. Last March, Arkansans wagered more than $2 million per day, on average, on sports betting.
Studies show people who gamble on sports may be twice as likely to suffer from gambling problems.
Young men in particular are hurt by sports betting. Twenty-year-old males account for approximately 40% of calls to gambling addiction hotlines, and upwards of 20 million men are in debt or have been in debt as a result of sports betting.
And research now shows that the legalization of sports betting may be linked to serious financial problems in America — such as credit card debt, overdrafts, late payments on loans, lower credit scores, and higher bankruptcy rates.
We’ve seen how sports betting companies often oppose safeguards and promote compulsive gambling. Last year the Arkansas Problem Gambling Council announced it had seen a 22% increase in calls for help — a spike driven largely by sports betting.
Scandals like spot-fixing corrupt sporting events and erode public trust in athletes and athletic programs, but there’s a much bigger problem in play. Sports gambling in general is a scourge, and it is ruining lives. As multi-billion dollar corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise gambling addiction will simply continue hurting families in our state.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
