So now you can bet sports legally in Kentucky. Just in time for the NFL season. Time to celebrate. The Commonwealth joins neighbors Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia as the 38th state in the nation where you can wager on sports.
And there are some good arguments in favor of the state’s recently barely-passed legislation. One we like is that it’s a way to help the state’s racetracks – an iconic industry that has made Kentucky the unique historical place it is to this day – stay in business. The racetracks will be one of the places to do retail betting until the online version begins Sept. 28.
Turfway Park, Henderson’s Ellis Park, Churchill Downs and Lexington’s the Red Mile are four of the nine places you can bet in person and that additional yearlong traffic will be good for them – and for Kentucky.
And most of the $23 million projected to go into the state’s coffers will go to the state’s underfunded public pension system, although why it’s underfunded and needs this boost might be the issue here.
But for the gambler who’s all excited about the chance to show how much he or she knows about sports, that $23 million might be a first cautionary tale about how much gambling you should do. Where do you think that money will come from?
Not from the winners. But from the rest of you out of all the money wagered, 9.75 percent will go to the state. But that’s not the half of it. The nine betting parlors will shell out $500,000 each for the licenses with an annual $50,000 renewal fee. The online services like FanDuel and DraftKings – there are nine of them now – will have to ante up $50,000 initially with a $10,000 renewal fee.
That money, again, to build, expand, hire a staff and market their services, will not come from the winning bettors. It will come from most of you – and we can say that with certainty – who will not end up in the long run, on the positive side as a bettor.
There’s a reason these sites can give you $200 in betting credits after your first $5 bet. Or $100 off your NFL Season Ticket package.
In our lifetime in sports, we probably have run across many hundreds, maybe thousands of sports wagerers. You couldn’t help it in Northern Kentucky where, it seemed, there was hardly a family who didn’t have someone who was, or knew, a bookie. At the old Villa Madonna College campus, such as it was back in the day in downtown Covington, students used to joke about how they could do a chemistry lab and place a bet in the same block in the same hour.
Of all those folks we knew who seriously placed bets on sports, we can think of just two who wound up long-term winners. They were both really smart. They had a system. They did it as a profession, or at least as semi-pros, to make money. And they were extremely disciplined. They only bet when they were almost sure – after all the research they had done, which was a ton — that they had a winner.
None of this “bet on the next pitch” stuff you can do in Major League Baseball now. You might as well be spinning the wheel at your parish picnic. It’s strictly a game of chance.
And if that’s more fun – losing your money on sports where you have a natural affinity and rooting interest – than on the lottery, go for it. But understand: You’re almost certainly going to lose. But if it gets your juices going watching the games you bet on, go for it, we guess, although there’s a reason the state has committed 2.5 percent of its “winnings” to a “problem gambling” office.
It’s what’s made the NFL what it is, that and Fantasy Football. And that translates into higher ratings for sports on TV, so maybe that’s how you look at it: It’s a tax on you that helps the colleges and pro teams you like to watch.
But one thing you must know: They’re not doing this so you can win money. They’re doing it so they can make money by taking your money.
And finally, if you’re a college coach, athlete or administrator, you must not bet on college sports. Interestingly, the Cincinnati Reds’ betting parlor this last spring was the site of maybe the biggest national scandal thus far when somehow people with connections to University of Cincinnati baseball were involved with the University of Alabama program over a big bet — $10,000 — based on an Alabama pitcher who was at the last minute not able to start on a particular day. Sounds wacky? Yep. That’s sports betting.
Mostly, you have to be 21 to bet, although the online verification of that would seem to be a real challenge. Watch this one for teens.
And finally, a personal take here. I’ve probably written thousands of columns over the 43 years of doing this. Only twice did I ever write a column saying someone was going to win and you could book it.
The more I know about sports, the more I know what I don’t know. I enjoy the uncertainty of sports. Let it play out. See who shows up that particular day or season. That’s the fun of it for me. You could have an idea. Or a strong feeling about how things would, should or could go. But that was as much fun for me as putting my money down.
I made an exception in 1986 when I wrote on the day of the game that Louisville was going to beat Duke for the NCAA basketball championship. Did it mostly because I couldn’t stand the smug East Coast media’s treatment of the Cardinals. Some of it may also have been how I felt about the whole “holier than thou” Duke aura. I was one for one in public picks. And that would be it, I thought.
But then again in 1987, I picked Alysheba to win the Kentucky Derby. Have no idea why I did that although I had covered Alysheba in the Blue Grass Stakes and really liked the horse and its story. And I hit it with the column. And yes, I did bet Alysheba that day, as well, although mostly I didn’t bet, even the Derby.
Got that one right, as well, and quit while I was ahead. Which for those of you who do get it right and get ahead of the game, is my advice as well.
To contact Dan Weber, write to dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.