WASHINGTON — I grew up in a day when the image of sports gambling was shady bookies who threatened to send thugs to break your legs if you didn’t pay your debts. (I grew up in a day where I watched a lot of TV.)
Professional leagues and the NCAA kept any perception of ties with betting on games as far away as they could.
Those days have changed, and on Tuesday, I changed with them. On a lark and searching for a column with Georgia Tech out of the ACC tournament after a first-round loss to Notre Dame earlier that day, I placed my first-ever legal bets on a game.
I put them down at a sportsbook that, conveniently enough, is located within Capital One Arena. The state of Georgia is considering legalizing sports betting, which means that betting sites like the one where I put down my cash Tuesday night could spring up near or even inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena or Truist Park, just as they have in Washington and stadiums across the country.
In the name of consumer-education journalism, here’s my report.
I walked into the sportsbook, which doubles as a sports bar, with the last game of the night — Boston College-Miami — already begun. Ever thoughtfully, bets still can be made for games that are underway. On the touch screen at my kiosk — in a room set off from the restaurant with about 20 stations — wagers like over/under (how many total points will be scored in a game) and the point spread shifted like stock market prices. For games that had yet to start, prop bets could be made on, for instance, how many points a particular player would score.
I didn’t know much about either team — a problem that I imagine the good folks at Caesars Sportsbook could live with — but I settled on two wagers with about two minutes left in the first half. In a hurry and wanting to put my money down so I could begin to experience life as a gambler — states of being that Caesars presumably also could tolerate — I put down $5 each on Boston College to cover as a 6.5-point favorite and for both teams to combine to score at least 160 points. (At the time, the Eagles led the Hurricanes 41-30 with two minutes to play in the first half.) The entirety of my rationale for my wagers was my recollection that the Eagles lit up Tech earlier this season.
(Yes, $10. Just call me Vegas.)
It all was a little dizzying. The betting lines were changing almost by the moment, and I didn’t know the teams or how much to bet. It was like ordering dinner at a restaurant where you weren’t familiar with the items, the prices were changing and the waitress was hovering over you.
I walked back into the stands to watch Boston College’s Jaeden Zachary end the half with a 3-pointer for a 47-32 Eagles lead. I was encouraged.
The teams opened the second half by scoring baskets on seven of the first eight possessions. It was like watching the NBA All-Star game. Even better, Boston College’s lead still was 13 points. I thought that maybe I was a sports-gambling genius.
It then dawned on me that perhaps I should start taking notes about my experience. But my next thought was, did I want to put down my hamburger and French fries and risk ruining the mojo?
And, apparently, just the thought alone broke the spell. A Boston College player went 1-for-2 from the line. A Miami player missed a hook shot. The pace slowed. Not much later, both teams went nearly two minutes without scoring. When I did the math and realized that the teams would have to average about five points per minute to make the over — a pace that extrapolates to a 200-point game — I abandoned my dreams of almost doubling my money and put my hopes on the Eagles covering and allowing me to recoup $9.55 of my wagered $10.
The Eagles, led by 30 points from star forward/center Quinten Post, ended up winning by 16 to cover the spread. At one point, with the game (but not the spread) well in hand, Post raised up for a 3-pointer. I arched my back in tension, feeling a small thrill when it went in.
For a lot of people, this is nothing new. Regardless, the whole experience was worth the 45 cents I lost and probably even $10 had I lost both my bets. For a lot of fans, I can envision how being able to go to a Braves game and put money down on whether Ronald Acuña Jr. homers would add to the experience.
I can see why sports betting is growing and, consequently, why leagues and teams have partnered with sportsbooks for the same reason the NFL has long embraced fantasy football. Aside from sportsbooks becoming sponsors, the leagues benefit by creating a growing market of people who will watch games they otherwise wouldn’t and compelling people at games to stay to the end. If I hadn’t felt duty bound to take notes of the experience, perhaps I would have gone back to the concession stand for another lucky hamburger.
And it makes sense why states are legalizing it, enabling them to get their hands into a lucrative industry.
But I also understand the pushback on various grounds. I can see why states wouldn’t want to enable access for people with gambling addictions or who otherwise probably shouldn’t be spending money on gambling to do so. (It doesn’t seem to stop states from selling lottery tickets, of course.)
And while it’s difficult to precisely differentiate putting money in an NCAA Tournament pool with friends and cheering for the 5-12 upset versus walking into a sportsbook and betting on the over, it does feel more unseemly somehow, especially involving college athletes. I asked Post about the matter after the game. He said he hears from gamblers all the time through social media.
“They’ll (direct message) me, and they’ll wish me the worst things if I don’t make their parlay or whatever, and they’ll praise me if I do,” he said. “I don’t pay attention to that.”
The worst, he said, is when people on campus tell him before games to make three 3-pointers so they can win prop bets.
“I really hate that,” he said. “Because, you know, I’m trying (to win). And I don’t care about your parlay.”
For a lot of reasons, that part doesn’t seem right. That can be a heavy and potentially damaging load to put on a 19-year-old, and it deserves consideration. That said, the horses have long escaped the barn on this one.
At least I returned home with my legs intact.
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