ARTICLE: Sports betting risky, lawmakers told

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Sports betting risky, lawmakers told
Ex-NFL official warns of effects on young people
By PATRICK JACKSON
Dover Bureau reporter
12/19/2002

A former top official in the National Football League asked Delaware lawmakers Wednesday not to resume state-sponsored sports betting in Delaware because it could undermine public confidence in professional sports and entice young people to gamble.

Jay Moyer, now a special counsel to the league, said he was representing all the nation's major professional sports leagues in making his appeal to members of a task force exploring whether the state should resume sports betting 26 years after abandoning a failed football betting game.

A return to legally sanctioned sports betting, Moyer argued, would encourage young people to pick up the gambling habit. He said it would harm sports by increasing the perception of some that games are corrupt, which is why all major leagues have stiff penalties for players, coaches or team officials who gamble.

"Legalized sports gambling sends a terrible message to youth," Moyer said. "Sports are important to millions of our young people. Youth look up to athletes. Our players cannot be expected to serve as healthy role models for youth to look up to if they are made to function as participants in a gambling enterprise."

The task force was created by the General Assembly in June to explore whether Delaware should allow limited sports betting at three slots casinos. The state shares in revenues from slots gambling.

The sponsor of the bill that required the study, Rep. William A. Oberle Jr., R-Beechers Lot, said he wants to build support for state-run sports betting to help the state's three slots casinos face expected competition in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Both states elected governors who support slots gambling at racetracks there.

Moyer was one of the NFL's principal lobbyists when the league pressed Congress to adopt the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which barred state-run sports betting operations. The law excludes four states - Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. Delaware was excluded because of its failed 1976 experiment with state-backed betting on NFL contests.

Delaware's 1976 experiment failed when bettors abandoned the game after state officials called off all bets one weekend because they feared there wouldn't be enough money to cover them.

Oberle said Wednesday that Moyer's testimony did not alter his view that Delaware should consider allowing sports betting.

"I'm not really surprised by the comments from the NFL. They're about what I expected," Oberle said. "At some point, we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that gambling is a major industry in Delaware and should be treated as such. It employs thousands of people and, by the way, you don't hear any of us complaining about the $200 million the lottery brings in. This is a move that would help protect our market share, and whether it happens now or later, I think logic will prevail."

Oberle said Delaware's federal exemption would not allow the state to begin unlimited sports gambling, such as in Las Vegas. The system could not allow bettors to place wagers on just one game. He said lawyers have told the task force that the sports betting would need to qualify as a game of chance, rather than a test of a bettor's skill.

For example, bettors would need to make a combination of wagers either on the point spreads in several games, or the point spread in a single game and whether the contest's score would be over or under a predicted point total for both teams. To win, a bettor would have to make all their picks correctly.

Oberle opted for the task force last spring after sports betting got a cool reception from senior lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Wayne A. Smith, R-Clair Manor. Smith opposes the plan, but thinks it may be hard to stop given the state's current financial woes.

"I have strong philosophical objections to any gaming, but especially sports gaming. I think it attracts young people to gambling because the youth culture is closely linked to sports," Smith said. "But Rep. Oberle is doing his homework and building a strong case. I think, if the economy stays weak, it will probably pick up support."

Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment President Denis McGlynn said adding sports betting would give Delaware a big competitive edge over Maryland and Pennsylvania. About 46 percent of the people who play Delaware slots come from Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Oberle hopes to have a report for lawmakers by April. The report was originally due in mid-January, but Oberle said more research is needed. However, he said, the delay shouldn't affect legislation - if he decides to introduce a bill.

Pro sports pushed for the 1992 federal law banning state-run sports betting because at least 20 states were exploring the possibility of running their own sports books during the financial crunch of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Gambling advocates say the law hasn't stopped betting, it only increased business for bookies, and now, offshore Internet gambling operations.

But Moyer, and Lisa Perlzoff of the Delaware Center for Gambling Problems, said a state-run game won't wipe out that business here.

"This will not take people away from bookies or the Internet, although they'll be glad to come down and place a bet," Moyer said. "This will increase sports gambling, and the problems that go with it, because it is legal."

During Wednesday's hearing, task force members also met with officials from Virt- game Corp., which sells gaming systems and software. Bruce Merati, the San Diego-based company's president, and members of his staff discussed gaming security issues and how gaming software and hardware could be devised to meet the state's needs.

There was disagreement at the meeting Wednesday with earlier predictions about how much money could be generated through sports betting. Estimates given at an earlier task force meeting showed the state might get an additional $50 million a year at each of the three racetrack casinos where betting would be permitted.

But Michael Knapp, the general manager at the Surfside Race Place at Del Mar, in California, said the estimate is potentially too low. He said Delaware's position as the only state on the East Coast with legal sports betting would attract business and that the $50 million estimate could easily double.

The NFL's Moyer disagreed. He pointed to Oregon, where the state makes about $2.5 million a year on its sports betting operation. But McGlynn said ideas being discussed here would give betters more options than Oregon's system.

Reach Patrick Jackson at 678-4274 or pjackson@d