Friday, October 26, 2007
David Stern to allow limited gambling among Referees'.
Everyone knows about Tim Donaghy and his gambling troubles and how he bets on NBA games. He was suspended indefinitely and was viewed as a disgrace to the league for awhile. David Stern was all up in arms about the whole situation and I think he handled the situation very well. But now he has said something that seems a little odd to me. In a recent internal review by the National Basketball Association, all of the 56 referees in the NBA said that they have done some sort of gambling and over half of them saying that they placed wagers in different Casinos all around the world. He has said that limited gambling is going to be allowed which seems pretty farfetched to me. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3079309 I know the gambling is limited which means it is like placing a bet in a casino or buying a lottery ticket but I still do not think it was a smart move by Stern. You let them gamble a little bit and it seems ok, then a little more sever gambling seems to be acceptable eventually leading into another Tim Donaghy situation. Why would you want that happening again? I say that David Stern should just not allow gambling at all. In my opinion, it would lower the risk that the referees would bet on games since even a little bit of gambling can lead to an addiction. In today’s world, money is a very desirable asset and if some of the Referees get addicted to gambling, betting on NBA games that they essential can control, seems very appealing and we all know that we don’t want another Tim Donaghy situation.
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2 comments:
Phil, I agree with you somewhat. Yes I know that David Stern allowing gambling by refs after the Tim Donaghy scandal is sketchy, but it's not right to restrict a person from gambling, legally, just because of their occupation. I'm sure people are saying it is unfair due to them reffing the game, but I'm sure that Stern's limited gambling restrictions prohibits them from betting on their own games. I think as long as Stern keeps them from betting on their own games that it should be allowed, because we all know that anything can happen every game.
I agree with what Tim said that they should be allowed to gamble to some extent. It is not fair that they can not gamble just because of their job. The thing is now that they can gamble it might open a can of worms like what happened with Donaghy that would cause even more problems in the league. As long as Stern keeps an eye on everything I don’t think that it will be to big of a problem and it will make the refs that want to do a little gambling happy that they can and not get in trouble for it from the league.
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