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NBA to Back Legalized Sports Gambling?
WASHINGTON, D.C. --
NBA Commissioner David Stern shocked the US today when he told a Sports Illustrated interviewer that the basketball league may be nearing a point of considering supporting the legalization of gambling on sports. Stern said that evolving public perceptions of gambling and the potential to increase revenue could lead to a move to allow sports betting on league games.
Stern contradicted the main argument used by the NFL in leading the fight to maintain the sports gambling ban set up by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. While NFL representatives fiercely cling to the theory that legal sports betting will lead to fixed games, Stern said illegal gambling was just as dangerous.
And the commissioner said that times have changed since gambling was seen as an immorality. Noting the proliferation of gavernment involvement in lotteries and other generators of gaming revenue, Stern admitted the decision may become merely a business one.
Stern even acknowledged the unfairness of the PASPA, saying the law gave Las Vegas a monopoly on sports gambling, a position currently being challenged in court by New Jersey lawmakers. While he admitted changing the official position of the NBA to call for legal sports betting is a big jump, he didn't discount it, saying that "it's fair enough that we have moved to a point where that leap is a possibility, although that's not our current position."
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