Excerpt
SUMMARY: Billions of dollars every year are wagered on the outcome of various sporting events, but except for bets made in Las Vegas and a few other states, they're all illegal. Now, representatives from cash-strapped states and even the NBA commissioner are behind the push to legalize sports betting, which they say will yield economic benefits. But plenty of opponents to the idea remain. NewsHour's William Brangham reports.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): Right now, millions of basketball fans in America are breaking the law… by betting on the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. And it’s not just college hoops, it’s bets placed on any sport: the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA. Billions of dollars every year are wagered, but — except for bets placed in person, in Las Vegas — they’re almost all illegal.
Chad Millman is the editor of ESPN the Magazine, which put NBA Commissioner Adam Silver — and his discussion of legalizing sports betting — on last month’s front cover.
Right now, outside of Las Vegas, it is illegal for me to place a bet on sports. So how does one go about doing that?
CHAD MILLMAN, ESPN: You call your bookie. You go online. A lot– there’s a lot of internet sites where you can make a bet.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Off-shore betting sites like this one, called Bovada, are a huge hub for betting on sports. It’s illegal for Americans to use these sites, but they do. Authorities have cracked down on these transactions, but they still continue. Notice the website’s address — it’s bovada.lv — you might think that stands for ‘Las Vegas’? No, it’s Latvia.
Because it’s a black market, it’s hard to know exactly how much money gets wagered illegally, but the Federal government estimated it ranges from 80 to 300 billion dollars — that’s billion with a 'b' — every year.
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