Essay - Sports Betting & Gambling This Essay Addresses Sports Betting. Discussed...

Sports Betting & Gambling

This essay addresses sports betting. Discussed are the problems with the betting, players getting gifts from ***** agents, and effect of sports betting on the economy. Seven sources are used.

Sports and Betting

***** Americans play more sports than in any other country ***** the world. Moreover, we watch more ***** than anyone else on earth. Football and figure skating, two sports that could not be ***** different have drawn the biggest TV audiences in history. Sports bind us together as Americans. It has the ability more than just about anything ***** to tear down the barriers of race, class, gender, politics and geography (McDonald 1998). Sports is part of our national culture. It's part ***** our ***** conversation. A waitress at the local cafe talks Friday-night football ***** the cop and ***** banker. ***** Democr*****ic gardener, trimming the greens at the country club, discusses golf swings or last ********** tournament with a Republican att*****ney. Soccer parents talk goalies ***** ***** high school jocks ***** ***** steroids and scholarships (McDonald 1998).

***** and *****tting have gone hand in hand for centuries throughout the world. People ***** the United States have been gambling on sports since there ***** been organized sports, and some claim it can be traced back in this country for roughly four hundred years.

Americans bet billions of dollars, legally and illegally, on ***** every year. It has become a huge underground p*****rt of the economy. Ninety-five percent ***** sports ***** in the ***** States occurs illegally. ***** untaxed and unregulated. Nevada is the only state where college ***** *****ting is legal (http://www.unr.edu/alumni/profile.asp?ID=5).

***** ***** is filled with scandals. Many of them read like a novel or Hollywood script and some have actually ***** immortalized on films, such as the 1919 fix of ***** World Series, known infamously as the Black Sox Sc*****al (Krystal 2002). "Baseball's darling "Charlie Hustle" Pete Rose was banned ***** baseball after gambling ***** his own team. The most timely example, however, is that of the case of ***** alleged pressure on a French figure skating judge to award the gold medal to the Russian doubles team rather ***** the Canadians. ***** problems associated ***** sports, however, reach beyond the professional level in ***** *****m of gambling on ***** athletics"(***** 2002). Sports betting has become a great threat to college athletes, as il***** college bookies thrive ***** ***** campuses around the country. They *****en to take down student athletes in violat*****g both NCAA regulations and ***** bans on gambling according to testimonies heard before the House ***** Representative' s Committee on Energy and Commerce (Krystal 2002). There are stories of athletes losing scholarships and even expulsion, but the most dangerous effect of all ***** ***** is the damage to the true spirit of ***** game. ***** ***** the ultimate culmination of guts and glory for athletes and spectators alike, and allowing ***** ***** to be marred ***** endangered by gamblers is unpardonable (Krystal *****).

College ***** are not paid salaries