This is The Mouthpiece, a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

A specter is haunting professional sports in the United States. It is the specter of sports betting.1 Both at the professional and college level, for  players, owners, and leagues. For generations, involvement with gambling on any level was professional suicide for any player, any owner, for any person connected in any way with big league and pro sports. It meant dismissal, disgrace, banishment for life. Just ask Pete Rose.

The actual reasons for this gut level attitude go back far beyond any particular scandal or incident, All the way back to 19th century England, where the so-called public school system (actually private) was set up to produce useful, Christian, patriotic citizens. One of the pillars of this system was team sports. “Mens sana in corpore sano” ran the phrase: healthy mind in a healthy body . While much of what passed for professional sports in those days (racing, boxing, cockfights, etc.) was shot through with corruption, payoffs and dirty tricks, the gentleman amateurs playing cricket and rugby and soccer would set the example of fair play and good sportsmanship. And thereby change society for the better.

This legacy, the idea that sports are good for society continues to exert powerful  influence all over the world. The idea that sports are something special and virtuous translates hard dollars. Lots of ‘em. Pro sports stadiums and arenas are routinely financed from taxpayer funds, even in cities that can’t really afford it. Professional sports enjoys relative immunity from antitrust and labor laws. To tell it like it is, pro sports gets a pass where other industries and interests are taxed and regulated to a fare-thee-well.