Fansided

Mark Cuban Supports NBA Commissioner Adam Silver On Gambling

By Phil Watson

Oct 30, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban during the game between the Mavericks and the Utah Jazz at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Jazz 120-102. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban during the game between the Mavericks and the Utah Jazz at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Jazz 120-102. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver this week took an unusual stand, calling for the legalization of sports betting. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he’s right.

It was a dial-mover this week when NBA commissioner Adam Silver, in an op-ed piece in Thursday edition of The New York Times, called for sports betting to be legalized.

Commissioners of North America’s sports leagues had been united in their opposition to any sort of expanded legalization of gambling on sports outside of the small pockets where it is legal, including Nevada.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban agreed with Silver, telling CBSSports.com it was “hypocritical” of leagues to endorse fantasy sports while at the same time opposing sports betting.

"“We all know leagues benefit from the interest in our leagues that [gambling and fantasy sports] create,” Cuban said. “In the past for PR reasons, we have put up token resistance to them.“I agree with Adam that now is the time to take sports betting out of the shadows and deal with it like the huge business it is.”"

There are estimates that as much as $400 billion is wagered illegally on sports every year.

Think of the number of roads and bridges that could be fixed or schools funded should that $400 billion find itself subject to taxation as part of a legal, regulated operation.

In his piece, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com takes the typical view—that somehow the sports leagues themselves would have to have a financial stake in a legalized gambling industry.

Why? That’s a really good question, one that Berger really doesn’t answer.

But the U.S. has a history of this sort of thing: An activity or industry is deemed, for whatever, to be illegal, immoral, fattening or all of the above, and it is prohibited. That activity grows into a gigantic underground industry free of taxation or regulation and society wrings its hands about what to do about it.

See Prohibition in the early 20th century or the never-ending War on Drugs for further details.

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