Gaming now part of the game
Curtis Stock
The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, February 17, 2007
EDMONTON - Not so long ago, the two couldn't have been more at odds.
Now, it appears one can't live without the other.
The relationship between sports owners, athletes and leagues and the gambling industry has never been cosier.
Here are a few examples:
ATHLETES
Flames forward Darren McCarty's gambling problems forced him into personal bankruptcy. Ex-NBA star Charles Barkley says he has lost about $10 million gambling. In his book My Life in & Out of the Rough, golfer John Daly wrote he once took a $750,000 check from a tournament in San Francisco, drove to Las Vegas, and promptly lost that and almost $1 million more.
Ex- NHLer Rick Tocchet's involvement in the New Jersey gambling sting called Operation Slapshot has yet to be determined in court, more than a year after he was charged by police. Tocchet's alleged misdeeds while Wayne Gretzky's assistant coach in Phoenix (ones for which he has not yet been indicted) revolve around an illegal bookmaking operation for which a New Jersey state trooper has already been convicted and sentenced.
NHL players like Martin Brodeur, Sheldon Souray and ex-Oiler Georges Laraque participated in a televised, albeit charity, Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament.
ADVERTISING
Last season the Canadian Football League had a marketing agreement with PokerStars.net while the Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders, Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats had separate deals with Internet gambling giant Bowmans.com. Eskimo players wore a Bowmans logo on their practice jersey while a Bowmans sign was at field level. The Stampeders had a 10-foot by 30-foot Bowmans logo on their field. The Argonauts displayed Bowmans on their Jumbrotron, in one end zone and on the field.
MEDIA
Newspapers carry betting lines on the sports pages. Before every NFL game the network's analysts give their best bets and selections.
Poker games are shown ad nauseum on a variety of TV networks, including all the sports channels. Poker columns run in newspapers.
LOTTERIES
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are the only CFL team benefiting from their own government-sanctioned lottery.
In the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks and the B.C. Lottery Corporation are on the same line. Through a multi-million-dollar licensing agreement, B.C. Lotteries uses the Canucks to sell $10 scratch-and-win tickets.
Previously, the Oilers and the Calgary Flames had their own agreement for a scratch-and-win ticket called Breakaway to Win, but that venture folded after three years.
SIN CITY
Las Vegas is home to the Calgary Flames' ECHL affiliate, the Las Vegas Wranglers, and the Los Angeles Dodgers Triple A farm team. The Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche played an exhibition game in Las Vegas before the start of this season and the city has held a dozen NBA games.
This weekend, the NBA all-star game is being held in Vegas. NBA Commissioner David Stern has said in the past that a franchise would never be located in Vegas as long as there was betting on basketball. Earlier this week, he seemed to soften his stance, saying it's ultimately the league's owners who call the shots.  |