It's A Sunday In September...
2007-09-09 11:31:02
By:
Gene Bromberg
And that can only mean one thing! That's right, our
$200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament! The only reason to get out of bed on Sunday, any Sunday, is to get yourself in front of your computer by 5:30pm EST, fire up UltimateBet, and begin your seven-hour quest to reach the final table.
Except for this Sunday. Instead we're holding another of our Aruba 50-seat satellites, a chance for 50 of our players to win a seat to the Aruba Poker Classic for a $500+$30 investment. That, as they say, is about as big a bargain as you're ever likely to find.
In addition to our huge Aruba satellite, I think I read somewhere that today is the first full day of NFL action. Is that this Sunday? I believe it is. But come on, does anyone really care about NFL football these days? Heh heh heh...
I guess somebody cares about the NFL. I was watching
Outside the Lines on ESPN this morning and they had someone who runs a handicapping site say that $60 billion is wagered on NFL games every year. Sixty BILLION. That, if we use the wagering lingo, is a big number.
Chad Millman was also on that show (he's a writer for ESPN
and the author of The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers and the Death of Their Las Vegas) and he estimated that nine out of every ten football fans gamble on the games in some way. It can be a friendly wager among a bunch of buddies, or an office pool, or maybe they put some money down with a local bookie. Of course millions place football bets in Vegas--even if you visit Sin City in July, how many people stop by the sports book to put down fifty bucks on their favorite team winning the Super Bowl?
And then there's Fantasy Football, which, of course, is a hugely popular form of gambling. Millions attend fantasy drafts every year, and while the leagues are usually more about pride and bragging rights than winning huge sums of money, there's almost always money involved. How popular is fantasy football, and by extention the NFL? It's so popular that when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed last October lawmakers carved out an exception for fantasy sports. They didn't want to tick off those millions of sports fans who like a little flutter to go with the games.
Which again points out the hypocrisy in the stance the United States government takes toward gambling. You get these politicians saying that gambling is the root of all evil...except for fantasy football. And horse racing. And lotteries. And casinos...the one being built in my district, I mean. And poker games...if they're used as fundraisers for my re-election campaign. Otherwise we need to break them up with raids by paramilitary forces.
ESPN will run hours of pregame shows before today's games and, dozens of times, they'll show the Vegas line on the games. In years past they've devoted a segment to Hank Greenburg handicapping the games and giving his top picks. The studio analysts will make their picks for several big games, and a running tally of how well they did will be shown throughout the season. ESPN also devoted a ton of time to fantasy football, telling players which players are hot, which are not, and who's due for a breakout season. And all the networks that carry NFL games give fantasy stat updates during their highlight shows. Doesn't all of this support and encourage gambling?
It would just be nice if we could have an honest discussion about the role gambling plays in our culture and our economy. About what rights and responsibilites the individual should hold in our society. Maybe, just maybe, the tide is turning in that direction. But if it is, it's turning awfully slow.
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