Expanding Ky. sports wagering not wise bet; needs voter approval

I’m not a betting man, but I can see that the action on sports gambling is heating up around the country, and that it’s building towards a confrontation in our state legislature.

With a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the federal government cannot prohibit sports gambling at the state level, more than a dozen states have made efforts to legalize it, with the hope that they can regulate gaming and earn some of the take.

A bipartisan group of Kentucky legislators will soon try to do the same, as the Herald-Leader has reported.

Those lawmakers appear to be arguing for sanctioned sports gambling on a note of cynical resignation. They point out that bookies and online wagering will continue their business here regardless of Kentucky law, and states bordering Kentucky are about to pass similar laws, so why not get in on the action?

Sen. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, said as much in a recent forum on the issue on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight.”

“It’s available now,” he said in one response, “so let’s go with what’s happening.”

Sanctioning sports gambling is a serious matter of ethics in our government, and there’s cause for alarm when our representatives are so cavalier in their reasons for supporting it.

I oppose the legalization of sports wagering in Kentucky. I could go into detail on any number of reasons why, including the effects of gambling on the integrity of the events and players, or the practical concern of how much revenue it can actually yield for the commonwealth.

The most important issue, though, is the health and well-being of the prospective bettors Kentucky would need to entice in order to keep the revenue streams flowing.

The Journal of Behavioral Addictions in recent years has published a number of studies of gambling addiction and its harmful effects on underage youth, families and even people who might scientifically be classified as being at a low risk for addiction.

Gambling addiction ruins lives. It’s bad enough that Kentucky’s lottery system has recently started encouraging people to make wagers on smart phone apps. Imagine the state posting thousands of prop bets at every moment during live sports broadcasts.

The most common argument against legalized gambling is that it poses an undue and exaggerated risk for low-income individuals and families who are, in this view, less educated and informed about how unlikely it is that they can change their fortunes through gambling.

Whether or not that would be true in Kentucky’s case, it is worth pointing out that casinos do in fact deliberately target lower-income people, as an investigation by The Guardian showed last year.

And, yes, I’m aware that my objections to sports betting will draw some polite chuckles, seeing as how I’m raising them here, where the sport of kings reigns supreme. Yet horse racing’s institutional status in Kentucky was made possible through a constitutional amendment, not an ordinary statute.

The main legal challenge to sports wagering, made by groups like the Family Foundation of Kentucky, is that wagering on all professional and amateur sports requires the same intensive legislative process.

I don’t agree with the Family Foundation on much, but I do think it has the right idea here.

Kentuckians can easily see that Americans are drastically changing their ideas about gambling, but we need to slow down and recognize what we’re complicit in if we pass this law.

Like the thrill of winning an early hand at the blackjack table, Kentucky may see a nice little revenue stream if it allows sports betting, but rational people know that if you stay at the table, the odds are very high that you’ll walk away with less than what you brought.