A couple weeks back Jim Rome had Michael Franceze on his radio show to talk about the NBA/Tim Donaghy betting scandal. Franceze, a frequent guest on Rome's show, is a reformed gambler and a former mob associate who has done time in Federal prison. I was only able to listen to the first two segments of Rome's interview but I had a couple of issues with some of the things Franceze was saying.
Franceze started in by talking about Vegas being a bad idea as a potential home for a pro sports franchise because of the easy access to gambling and a criminal element being there. With all due respect to Franceze who has probably seen more than I ever would in a 100 life-times: what a crock. Vegas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta.... it doesn't matter... whereever there are pro athletes with money, bad people peddling bad ideas will be there. Trouble will always follow young men with lots of money and it doesn't matter where. Oh yeah - they all gamble. NBAers especially. Flush with cash and days-off between games with nothing better to do, they become absolute degenerates. Thousands of dollars on H-O-R-S-E games before practice, running poker games, that game where you toss pennies against the wall.... anything to kill time and create the high that gambling and winning at gambling accomplishes. The NBA is rife with a culture of gambling as it is and it has nothing to do with Vegas.
Like its going to be any worse in Vegas? I'll make the argument that the situation actually will improve for a team home-based in Vegas. How many people that live and work in Vegas actually go near the Strip? Not many. Why? Because they are.... living and... working... in Vegas. Vegas isn't any different than any other place on the planet when it comes to the daily grind of working, raising a family and trying to keep your head above water. For teams and the players who would hypothetically be home-based in Vegas, the city would not be the destination where you go nuts for a few days... it would be home. Home to your family, home to your friends and home to your community. The allure and excitement would be dulled somewhat because you are making a home there and not treating it as a wild vacation destination.
Lastly, ballers would be watched like hawks in the casinos and strip clubs in Vegas. Vegas has a vested interest that everything is on the up-and-up and that there are no shenanigans. You think Baller 'X' is going to be able to go to a strip club and have some mob lackey approach him about fixing a game and this not be out on the "street" of the gambling establishment the next morning? If I'm baller "X", Vegas is the absolute LAST place I want to talk to anyone about gambling or fixing games in my own sport. Since Vegas is the gambling capitol of the world, they are best qualified to monitor and police the activity that is there very livliehood.
One more "lastly"... he talked about legalizing gambling and it being a bad idea. I agree but for different reasons. Like drugs, the only reason I don't want to see gambling legalized is that with legalization will come regulation and with that taxation. Gambling will become yet another revenue stream for the Monster (see: the Lottery) that will not coincidentally be regressive in nature, taking advantage of the very people that can ill afford it. The very people, culture and bureaucracy that will soon be providing your health care are the same practicing a soft-genocide of sorts in adminstering the gambling opiate to our country's lower economic classes.
Like its going to be any worse in Vegas? I'll make the argument that the situation actually will improve for a team home-based in Vegas. How many people that live and work in Vegas actually go near the Strip? Not many. Why? Because they are.... living and... working... in Vegas. Vegas isn't any different than any other place on the planet when it comes to the daily grind of working, raising a family and trying to keep your head above water. For teams and the players who would hypothetically be home-based in Vegas, the city would not be the destination where you go nuts for a few days... it would be home. Home to your family, home to your friends and home to your community. The allure and excitement would be dulled somewhat because you are making a home there and not treating it as a wild vacation destination.
Lastly, ballers would be watched like hawks in the casinos and strip clubs in Vegas. Vegas has a vested interest that everything is on the up-and-up and that there are no shenanigans. You think Baller 'X' is going to be able to go to a strip club and have some mob lackey approach him about fixing a game and this not be out on the "street" of the gambling establishment the next morning? If I'm baller "X", Vegas is the absolute LAST place I want to talk to anyone about gambling or fixing games in my own sport. Since Vegas is the gambling capitol of the world, they are best qualified to monitor and police the activity that is there very livliehood.
One more "lastly"... he talked about legalizing gambling and it being a bad idea. I agree but for different reasons. Like drugs, the only reason I don't want to see gambling legalized is that with legalization will come regulation and with that taxation. Gambling will become yet another revenue stream for the Monster (see: the Lottery) that will not coincidentally be regressive in nature, taking advantage of the very people that can ill afford it. The very people, culture and bureaucracy that will soon be providing your health care are the same practicing a soft-genocide of sorts in adminstering the gambling opiate to our country's lower economic classes.
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