Athletes Gambling In Sports

Every sports team seems to have that one person that has to be the best, and will go to the extreme to make themselves better. Especially the guys that are a little old and feel as if their training is not good enough to keep up with the youngsters. When I say “extreme” I am talking about steroids. Once the Russian weightlifters introduced this performance enhancing tool to the U.S, some players in almost all major sports, any age, any gender, and any race just cannot get enough of it. Watching ESPN, I see that there is no sign of Athletes slowing down even with a chance of having bad health conditions, being penalized by getting fined, and hurting the team by getting suspended for a certain amount of days; showing that taking steroids and

Gambling has an adverse impact on the individual athlete's or coach's integrity. Reputation diminishes, and the athlete becomes better known for participation in gambling activities than for athletic feats and career accomplishments. Gambling scandals can ruin careers, and permanently mar the individual's ability to participate in the sport again. As Finley, Finley & Fountain (n.d.). point out, gambling also has the potential to ruin the integrity of the entire team, league, or whole sport. "Ensuring an honest and uncorrupted game has been one of the biggest challenges facing sport," (Finley, Finley & Fountain, n.d., p. 41). Baseball in particular has been plagued by gambling scandals. However, other professional sports have also revealed the prevalence of widespread corruption. Finley, Finley & Fountain (n.d.) also note that gambling on college sports has been a problem since the CCNY point-shaving scandal of the 1950s. Point shaving proved lucrative enough for high-profile black market gambling syndicates to flourish. Although most players, coaches, and teams are not corrupt, the few that are have sullied the image of all sports.

Over nemouse years the world has evolved and many changes have taken place. Regardless of your age, gender, religion or race its seem that sports has been one of the things that brings everybody together in the end. Whether it be sharing an interest for the same sport in general or the same sports team. With this being said corruption has entered the sports community, it is not about bringing your team together for the sake of enjoyment. Being victorious is now what is expected among your team, coaches, fans and yourself. Now Athletes and coaches are doing whatever it takes to win. Whether it be breaking the law by placing bids or accepting bids, committing fraud and willingly taking illegal performance-enhanching

From the worldly perspective, people can be inclined to compromise ethical beliefs for their perceived benefit in doing so. In this case, having a coach ignoring performance enhancing drug use to continue a winning record, and teammates that are “pushing” the use creates tension for a developing athlete. Just because a substance is not yet illegal does not make it “right” to consume; the substance still offers an advantage over those who are not using it. “One hundred percent of community sports instructors…reported that they have a role to play in preventing doping” (Backhouse, 2012, p.170). With this knowledge, it becomes clear that there is a negative connotation associated with using performance enhancing drugs, and for good reason, “94% of community sports instructors indicated that doping should be outlawed due to its negative effects on health” (Backhouse, 2012, p.170).

Gambling is a common practice throughout human history, one that appeals to the individual’s desire for gain and offers the thrill of risk or uncertainty. Sports gambling is the “wagering of money or other items of value on the outcome of a sporting event, dependent either wholly or in part on chance” (Thompson, 2008, p. 1). Sports gambling generates billions of dollars annually, with large events like the Super Bowl or World Series alone able to generate wagers in the billions of dollars. This research will explore the arguments of those who oppose sports gambling and those who support it in order to answer the question: Should sports gambling be legalized?

Gambling is perceived in very different ways by its participants and affected parties. There is a stricter and no tolerance view practiced by the National Collegiate Athletics Association [NCAA] whose role is to govern college athletics. A study conducted by (Nelson, LaBrie, LaPlante, Stanton, Shaffer, & Wechsler, 2007) points out that “…the NCAA membership adopted bylaw 10.3 that prohibits athletics department staff and student-athletes from engaging in gambling activities that relate to intercollegiate or professional sport events.” As stated earlier, the individuals mentioned in The NCAA’s bylaw are not the only people participating in sports related gambling activities. Furthermore these individuals, consisting of college students (student-athletes and non participants), and fans also partake in gambling activities unrelated to sports. Their perception of gambling seems less strict than the NCAA. Previously stated, it is viewed as fun, a way to win money, for excitement or entertainment for student-athletes. This view is also shared by college students that are non participants and fans. Another perspective of a non participant or fan on sports gambling suggested by (Nelson, LaBrie, LaPlante, Stanton, Shaffer, & Wechsler, 2007) states that there are some “…sports fan who might gamble on sports as a way of “being in the game.” In addition, (Nelson, LaBrie, LaPlante, Stanton, Shaffer, & Wechsler, 2007) mentioned that this attitude may stem from there being

The Baseball World Series of 1919 involved the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds (Linder, 2010). The Series was an exciting exchange that boiled down to the last game, which was taken by the victorious Cincinnati Reds (Linder, 2010). However, a year later, news broke that the game was rigged by the Chicago White Sox (Linder, 2010). They threw the game in order to receive a large payout, which was never given (Linder, 2010). The eight players involved disgraced the sport and the American public (Linder, 2010). In today’s world of sports, scandals continue to happen. A recent example is the doping scandal of the United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team and, their captain, Lance Armstrong. While the US Postal Service team’s doping does not seem to be connected to the White Sox’s gambling problem, they share many similarities.

A common argument against doping in sport shifts from the concept that, there should be a level playing field for athletes and competition. A connection between doping and wrongness is noticeable as, it is argued that doping is banned because it is cheating or unfair (Meller, Waddington and Hoberman, 2015). In some cases, doping in sports is ‘cheating’ because the athlete is breaking their contractual obligations, in sports that it is prohibited. (Green, 2004 and Schermer, 2006) define cheating as being the intentional violation of a rule, that is used in common language as an indication to many different forms of deception, and fraud that are intended to gain some benefit for oneself. Cheating essentially involves the intent to gain an unfair advantage (Feezell, 2010). Unfair in the sense that the athlete has gained themselves a greater

The Olympics now have various organizations and committees delegated to testing for and eliminating the use of performance enhancing drugs. The most recent Olympic committee for the Games in Vancouver was partnered with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, L’Institut national de la recherche scientifique — Institut Armand-Frappier, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and LifeLabs to collect and test approximately 2450 blood and urine samples (“Anti-Doping Initiatives”). Their meticulousness and commitment was most definitely justified. Olympic athletes implicitly agree to a social contract of fair competition. Those athletes who take steroids have an unfair advantage over those who do not, and therefore these athletes are breaking this social contract.

One of the biggest issues among sports betting is with athletes betting on matches. Most athletes who are betting on a sporting event are actually participating as well. Some athletes will go as far as to fix the match in the favor of their bet just so they can make a profit. This can consist of such things like a win or loss for a match, a player being subbed out of a game at a specific time, or even a certain player getting injured within a game. These bets are easy for an athlete to influence in their favor since unlike normal bettors, they can satisfy a betting requirement if they wanted to. However, most professional athletes do not bet on sporting events as they already make more money than

Famed writer Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the great scorer comes to mark against your name. He'll mark not won or lost but how you played the game” (World of quotes, 1). That buoyant attitude of selflessness and heart has slowly diminished throughout the course of time. Now, George Allen’s booming voice, former coach of the Washington Redskins, runs throughout head of America, “Only winners are truly alive. Winning is living. Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you lose, you die a little” (Harris, 67). It is with this frame of mind that athletes are pushed beyond the edge of reason. Although peer pressure and pressure from coaches are central reasons why one may use steroids, most users begin using in order to improve their self image or excel in sports. Ethics, integrity, and legality aside, some athletes will stop at nothing to attain “that extra edge”.

No matter the sport, most athletes seek every competitive advantage to make it to the top. One of the main advantages is the performance athletes gain through drug use, and a big question today is the real purpose behind the drugs. Is an athlete truly just trying to enhance his or her performance to make it to the next level, or is there a deeper meaning, a problem with body image and how the public views these athletes, or a combination of both? According to an article on the Dilemmas of Doping, the rules in sports have two effects, “One is private: rules produce an entertaining game that generates private benefits for players, owners, and especially spectators. The other is social: rules tend to reward play that exhibits self-discipline, sacrifice for the good of the whole, and fair play.” ( qtd in Bird, Edward J and Gert G. Wagner). An athlete not only is rewarded by fair play, but winning without cheating, using drugs, etc. is the ultimate feeling of accomplishment. These athletes may have a sense that without stimulants they will never reach the top and feel like they have no other choice.

Different sports organizations such as Professional Cycling, NFL and NBA just to name a few, have all been hit with players doping. We will only focus on the NBA and NFL and how their organizations deal with the issues.

In the informational article, entitled “Cheating for Olympic gold”, Markos Kounalakis goes into detail on how cheating has been a common thing to see not only in athletes but in bid committees and sporting institutions as well. First, Kounalakis shows that cheaters will live on in infamy forever even if they cheated years and years back. The writer also describes how some people cheat because they knew if they lost, their county would be disappointed in them. Kounalakis goes on to say that people in Russia were testing their athletes in domestic labs and making up fake results which might just make the Olympic committee take away their chance at playing in the summer games. He also points out that Russia might have wanted the games to distract

Robert Kiyosaki once said, “Successful people take big risks knowing they might fall hard but they might succeed more than they ever dreamed.” This man is a billionaire that hit the jackpot, while gambling. He now owns eleven different businesses and he is worth over eighty million dollars. If someone could learn how to astute, they could live like him too. The articles, The Legalized Gambling Debate, Sports Betting Should be Legal, and Should Sports Gambling be Legal?, all attribute thought to this suggestion. Gambling is a feasible business as it provides revenue, sponsors education, and inspires gamblers.