Gambling and betting are the worst threat to sports in general and as you can see from the example of the USA, it will only become more so.
A tumor that, instead of being removed, just continues to be fed.
The market exists, is huge and will not simply disappear. If you take regulated options, then you’re betting secretly, which is likely to be much more dangerous for the sport. But of course, at the moment we are just looking at the money and broadcasting one advertisement after the other.
This legal is better argument is complete nonsense.
Legality normalizes it, makes it much more accessible and therefore increases the money and interest in it and therefore the incentives and number of manipulation.
Even my tiny town has a local Típico. It’s everywhere, in every advertisement, sports app and everything that has to do with football and other sports.
The US is the best example of what happens when you legalize it. From something that 99% of the country could only do in Vegas and therefore the majority of the country had never done, to being legal in every state and advertised everywhere, and virtually all statistics show that the majority of bets are young men and are addicted (some even as young as elementary school). Problems that never existed before because it wasn’t legal. Of course there were illegal casinos and clubs but they were rare and not accessible to the average person.
Now anyone can do it and the advertising incites them to do it, whereas it was presented as forbidden and rightly so it was presented as a negative thing.
At the same time, leagues, clubs, associations etc cannot take action against betting fraud, players, referees, coaches etc who bet and condemn it, while they are sponsored by betting companies and convey to their supporters and spectators that it is a good thing. It’s just hypocritical. If you see it as something really bad, you have to distance yourself from it completely.
Illegal markets, backroom betting and a lack of control are also real. For me, the crucial difference is less the question of whether it is legal or illegal, but rather how strongly something is pushed by society and the media.
And I’m completely with you: This constant presence is fatal. When betting providers appear on jerseys, in apps, in stadium boards and in every other commercial break, a risky product suddenly becomes something commonplace. This is exactly what lowers inhibitions, especially among young people.
In the end, the most hypocritical thing is that associations and clubs, on the one hand, act shocked at every betting scandal, but on the other hand, they earn money from this entire industry or at least willingly accept it as sponsors. You cannot credibly take a stand against betting fraud and gambling addiction if at the same time you continue to integrate this exact system into sport.
