SPORTS GAMBLING
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Wagering on sporting events is one of the oldest and most popular forms of gambling in the world. The ancient Romans gambled on chariot races, animal fights, and contests between gladiators. The Romans brought sports and gambling to Britain, where they have flourished for hundreds of years. Cockfighting, bear- and bullbaiting, wrestling, and footraces were popular sporting events for gambling throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Horse races and boxing matches became popular spectator and betting sports during the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sporting events became more team-oriented and organized as rugby, soccer, and cricket grew in popularity.
Many early colonists in America brought their love of sports and gambling 텐벳 원엑스벳 윈윈벳 with them. Horse racing, in particular, became a part of American culture. However, the morals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries squelched popular support for legalized sports gambling. By 1910 almost all forms of gambling were illegal in the United States. This did not stop people from gambling on sports, however. The practice continued to flourish, and horse racing, in particular, managed to maintain some legal respectability as a betting sport.
Nevada legalized gambling again in 1931 and permitted sports wagering for a couple of decades. The influence of organized crime and sports gambling scandals led to a crackdown during the 1950s. Legal sports gambling did not return to Nevada until 1975, when it was tightly licensed and regulated.
Today sports gambling in the United States can be broken down into three primary categories. The first is pari-mutuel betting on horse and greyhound races and jai alai games. This form of gambling is legal in forty-three states. Although once quite popular, pari-mutuel betting has suffered a decline in recent years. The second form of sports gambling, permitted only in Nevada, is legal betting using a bookmaker. The third and most widespread form of sports gambling is illegal betting.
SOCIAL ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORTS GAMBLING
The popularity of sports gambling is attributed to several factors—a growing acceptance of gambling in general, intense media coverage of sporting events, and emerging technologies that make wagering easier. Sporting events are increasingly broadcast through an array of media sources. There are entire television networks dedicated solely to sports. Americans can pick up a wide variety of sporting events from around the world via local and cable television stations, satellite services, and even the Internet. Cellular phone users can have the latest scores sent right to their wireless phones. Sports bars and restaurants are also popular. These establishments feature multiple television sets tuned into various sporting events.
In December 2003 the Gallup Organization conducted its annual lifestyle poll. Participants were asked if they had participated within the previous twelve months in various forms of gambling. As shown in Figure 2.1 in Chapter 2, nearly half of those asked (49%) had purchased a state lottery ticket, while 30% had visited a casino, 15% had played bingo for money, and 14% had played video poker. The percentages for sports gambling were much lower. Only 10% had bet on a professional sporting event, and 6% had bet on college sports. Another 4% said they had bet on a horse race, and 2% had bet on a boxing match. Table 8.1 shows trends over time reported by Gallup for these sports gambling activities. In 2003 participation was historically low in every category.
The most recent national poll conducted to determine American attitudes about gambling was performed during April and May 1999 by the Gallup Organization. The poll was conducted among 1,523 adults (aged eighteen and up) and 501 teenagers (aged thirteen to seventeen). At that time, 64% of the adults and 52% of the teenagers approved of legalized gambling 맥스벳 핀벳88 벳365 in general. The participants were asked several questions about their participation in and attitudes about sports gambling. It is not clear how much of the adultgambling discussed in the poll is legal and how much is illegal. However, most (if not all) gambling conducted by the teenaged respondents must be illegal because they are younger than eighteen, the lowest legal gambling age in most states for any type of sports gambling.
Only 9% of adults said they had bet on a horse or dog race during the previous year. Surprisingly, 5% of the teenagers had also done so. When asked about college sporting events, 9% of adults and 18% of teenagers admitted having bet on them. The percentages were somewhat higher for professional sports: 13% of adults and 27% of teenagers had placed wagers during the previous year. One-quarter of adults and 15% of teenagers had bet on a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl or World Series, through an office pool. A large majority of adults (68%) and teenagers (67%) indicated that they believed "legalized betting on sporting events leads to cheating or fixing games."
A slight majority of adults (53%) and teenagers (55%) thought that off-track betting on horse races should be legalized as a means of raising state revenues. The legalization of gambling on professional sporting events for the same purpose was approved by 41% of adults and 60% of teenagers.
PARI-MUTUEL GAMBLING
"Pari-mutuel" is a French term meaning "mutual stake." In pari-mutuel betting, all wagers on a particular event or race are combined together into a pool that is split between the winning bettors and the management. The larger the pool, the bigger the payoff. In pari-mutuel gambling, patrons bet against each other, not against the house. The principles of the pari-mutuel system were developed in France during the late nineteenth century by Pierre Oller.
The pari-mutuel system has been used on horse races in the United States since around 1875, but it did not really catch on until the 1920s and 1930s, when an automatic odds calculator called a totalizator came into use. The totalizator was a machine that took money, printed betting tickets, and continuously calculated odds based on betting volume.
Prior to this time, horse betting was conducted mostly by bookmakers who were notoriously corrupt. In 1933 California, Michigan, Ohio, and New Hampshire legalized pari-mutuel gambling on horse racing as a means of regulating the industry and gaining some revenue. Dozens of states followed suit over the next decade. Pari-mutuel gambling was also adopted for greyhound racing and matches of jai alai (a game similar to handball). Table 8.2 lists the states that currently allow pari-mutuel gambling in some form. A handful of these states permit pari-mutuel gambling by law, but do not have facilities or systems in place to conduct it. For example, pari-mutuel gambling on horses is permitted in Shelby County, Tennessee, but the state does not have a racing commission. Therefore, no parimutuel gambling takes place in Tennessee.
In pari-mutuel gambling the entire amount wagered is called the betting pool, the gross wager, or the handle. The system ensures that event managers receive a share of the betting pool, regardless of who wins a particular race or match. The management's share is called the takeout. The takeout percentage is set by state law and is usually around 20%.
Another important term is "breakage," which refers to the odd cents not paid out to winning bettors because payoffs are rounded. In other words, a winning ticket is not paid down to the penny. The payout on a $2 bet is typically rounded off in $.20 increments. The cents left over are the breakage. Although breakage amounts to only pennies per bet, it adds up quickly with high betting volume. For example, California horse racetracks accumulated more