You have to wonder what Pete Rose thinks of this whole Shane Pinto situation.
Rose, as you may recall, is a baseball Hall of Famer in every respect, other than the fact that he’s not actually in the Hall of Fame. That blemish would be because he was permanently banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on baseball.
Shane Pinto of the Ottawa Senators, was recently suspended for 41 games by the NHL for his ties with online gambling – although the specifics of what exactly happened are still pretty muddy.
Interestingly, for what it’s worth, one thing that was made abundantly clear when this was announced, was that Pinto did not bet on hockey. It seems his “crime” was more about a betting account of his possibly being used by proxy (someone else, a friend, using his account to gamble).
Rose, on the other hand, had his fingerprints (so to speak) all over his dubious endeavour. Rose bet, and he bet a lot.
Both cases are essentially the same but what has changed is the optics of sports in relation to gambling.
Sports betting has historically always had this weird kinship with the leagues themselves, but the relationship was always dealt with in a hypocritical manner. Leagues would go out of their way to distance themselves from the “dirty” underworld of gambling, while at the same time unofficially welcoming it all to the fold because of its longtime connections with sports as a whole.
Case in point in 1976 when Jimmy The Greek, a Las Vegas gambler, was welcomed to CBS’ NFL Today pregame show for the expressed purpose of giving fans his predictions for the upcoming weekend of football games (encouraging fans to gamble even though it could only legally be done in Las Vegas).
With this, the NFL – which has always kept sports wagering at a distant arm’s length – was now unofficially (with the introduction of this segment at least) accepting gambling’s massive role in the league’s historical popularity.
Fast forward to today, where it seems every professional sports league has some sort of key sports wagering partnership. The NHL for example, has teamed with both FanDuel and BetGM to bring sports wagering to the league and also to Canada.
Ironically the precursor to this, in some provinces was run through the various provincial gaming associations. Thus, gambling on sports has gone from the image of seedy, smoke-filled back rooms that no one wanted to be connected with, to one of these official sports betting partners having their logos plastered across boards all over the league.
Why the change? Well, it’s based on two things.
One, we’ve become much more adult when dealing with the realities of life, regardless of the moral dilemmas the various issues may seem to pose. Sports gambling simply isn’t seen the same way it was 40 years ago. Call it moral degradation if you like but all things change, and sports gambling has become the child born out of wedlock that’s finally being accepted for what he is.
The other – and undoubtedly, more plausible – reason pro sports organizations have cozied up to the world of betting is simply because of money. Given the massive amounts bet on sports over the years, it was only a matter of time until the leagues demanded a cut of the action. Nothing bends strict morality quite like the prospect of a fat wallet and because these sports wagering organizations were now deemed legally above board, there was no ethical dilemma for anyone to deal with.
Problem is, today’s argument is not about ethics. It’s about hypocrisy. Gambling can be a legitimate thing, and with its legalization it is, but aligning it with the very thing you’re betting on creates a very slippery slope. The people who actually play the sport can now influence the on-field product as well as bet on it.
And all the while, this odd alignment is passively endorsed by the leagues, so it comes as no surprise to anyone with a basic understanding of logic, that this was a big problem waiting to happen. And now with the league’s crucifixion of Shane Pinto, it shows that the powers that be, really haven’t thought this one through very well.
Pete Rose can tell you that much.