**I spent almost 3 months working on this research paper and figuring out how to explain baseball to non-baseball people.  I'm looking for feedback if anyone is willing to help me out while I rant.  If not allowed, I will remove**

Sports gambling is a big part of American culture in the 21^st century. Rather it’s on the side of a bus, billboard, or is sponsoring the event you’re watching, odds are, you’ve probably seen advertisements for companies such as Fan Duel, DraftKings and MGM.  Since a Supreme Court ruling known as Murphy v. The NCAA in 2018, sports gambling legalization has been a state decision with little to no federal regulation on sponsorships and advertisements (Shannon). Professional sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB) have taken notice of economic gains presented by the vice and have gone from not wanting anything to do with it, to making $1.1 Billion in legal gambling revenue (American Gambling Association). You would think by the acceptance of the economic gains from gambling, that the leagues would be more generous to athletes in regard to the sports gambling industry. Unfortunately, you would be mistaken.  According to The MLB Rulebook Rule: 21, gaining any form of profit from a(n) legal or illegal betting agency, competing team or league officiant (umpire) stemmed from their duties of playing baseball is labeled as Misconduct and could have penalties up to permanent ineligibility. This has created an economic gap between what the league is allowed to profit from and what the athlete is allowed to profit from.  The topic itself, is such a taboo that it is very difficult to have as much as a conversation with someone involved with baseball about gambling revenue.  Players need to be compensated for their name, image, and likeness in the sports gambling industry if their parent league is able to profit from it.

Analyzing the economics of sports gambling is an in-depth and complex process.  To understand how an athlete, worth multi-million dollars can be taken advantage of, we have to understand the origins of gambling. From Roman guards using Jesus’ crucifixion clothes as a lottery jack-pot, to supplementing the American income during The Revolutionary War, gambling or “casting of lots” has been a focal point in human history since the dawn of competition (East).  The blurred lines between competitor and beneficiary create a possible integrity gap that has been made famous by people looking to cheat the system.  In 1919, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and the Chicago White Sox made it to baseball’s championship series known as the “World Series”, a best of nine (now seven) game series, against the Cincinnati Reds.  Jackson, along with 7 other players, were approached by gamblers and were offered money to lose on purpose or “throw the game”.  The gang allegedly accepted, went on to lose the series in 8 games, were tried in 1920 and acquitted of their crimes.  The Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) at the time, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, believed he had more information from the guilt of the players and decided to ban the 8 players for life in what is now known as the “Black Sox Scandal” (Mueller).  How Commissioner Landis handled the situation has been the model for handling gambling in sports to this day. Legislation has changed since then, however there has been no change to how professional sport leagues address and discipline gambling violations while being able to profit from its own prohibition.

In 1992, there was a bipartisan effort to enforce a nationwide sports gambling ban known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).  One of the biggest supporters of this bill was, then Senator, Joe Biden, who has always represented the belief that gambling could cause integrity issues within the sport and “harm to children”.  The bill grandfathered Las Vegas (and later Atlantic City) to allow sports betting only within city limits (Bell).  Governor Chris Christie of NJ brought up the poorly written wording of the bill in the 2010’s to lower Federal Courts.  Governor Murphy, who followed Gov. Christie in office, continued the case.  It reached the Supreme Court in 2018 with lower courts favoring the bill.  On May, 14^th, 2018, the court’s decision favored Murphy by a count of 7-2 paving the path to the end of the gambling prohibition and leaving the discussion to the states.  What this also meant was there was no federal regulation to the gambling industry (Shannon).  The days of professional sports leagues shunning the gambling world like in the days of Shoeless Joe, Pete Rose, and Phil Donohue would be numbered, well, kind of.  Using MLB’s model as an example, the leagues overall revenue for this past Fiscal Year is $11 Billion, the check they are receiving from Draft Kings is worth $1.1 Billion (10%) (American Gambling Association). While still prohibiting anyone in connection with a Major League team from receiving any compensation from the gambling industry within connection to their duties as a Major League baseball player (MLB Rulebook Rule: 21).  There is also 0 compensation from the leagues to the players from that revenue.

Stake holders (front office, coaches, players) have little liberty to discuss the matter due to the strict rules put in place by MLB.  A General Manager of a Minor League Baseball team, who is currently not associated with Minor League Baseball at the time for this writing, said “The best part about [rule 21] is there is no ambiguity about it.” (7/3/2024) When asked if players or coaches have brought up concerns to management and front office staff about gambling rules in baseball.  While also stating “The league puts a lot of resources in everything from seminars to bathroom reading material on Rule 21.” A Minor League player from a different team (who consented to have a conversation about gambling in baseball on the condition of anonymity) no longer wished to be a part of the conversation once the interviewer brought up an effort to change Rule 21 to generate compensation to the athletes (7/5/2024).  The baseball player was young and skittish, almost to the point of being unpleasant.  The young athlete was careful with his word selection and went as far as to ask the interviewer to remove his headphone. The behaviors witnessed only leads to further assumptions on the amount of pressure being applied by MLB in regard to how baseball employees view gambling.

There are solutions through legislation. However, since MLB conducts business in every state in the country, the federal government would need to legalize gambling before they could regulate how organizations receive revenue from gambling companies.  To stay within the current gray legality margins, MLB can have different advertisements on different networks, streaming to different regions (Hernandez).  In theory, if the national prohibition on gambling was lifted, it would pave the way for congress to view athletes as employees of gambling companies that allow patrons to place bets on events that the athlete is performing in.  This would be considered a tax law that would require finance committees of the US legislative branch’s approval.  This would also benefit MLB’s position due to states gambling laws prohibiting casino employees from gambling at the casino that they work for.  To say this would be an uphill battle is an understatement.  While the legalization of sports gambling is popular with the public, there are moral reasons, such as addiction and religion, that appear to make more sense to leave in the hands of state governments to decide (similar to gun rights, and marijuana prohibition).  On top of that, congress working to make more money for multi-million-dollar athletes would be viewed as wasted resources from the general public’s view.  It is safe to say, compensation to the players won’t come from possible legislation. There are simply too many hurdles to overcome.  That being said, it not out of the realm of possibilities. Major League’s top stars have seen the inside of capitol hill before. On March 17^th, 2005, 10 baseball employees, headlined by Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Rafeal Palmeiro, went in front of congress in an 11-hour congressional hearing in an attempt to pressure MLB into taking Performance Enhancing Drugs more seriously in the “best interest of the American public” (Calcaterra).  We are pretty far away from being able to say players profiting from gambling is in the best interest of the American public.  If this is the eventual solution, it could take decades for this to be on Capitol Hill’s agenda.

What options does that leave us with?  Well, it is possible for the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) to step in.  The MLBPA is the players’ union that stands up for the legal rights of the athletes in binding agreements with the MLB known as Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA).  The current CBA covers from 2022-2026, and while it addresses matters like team revenue sharing to make sure lesser wealthy teams benefit when a team is very successful, there no mention in the current CBA about gambling revenue sharing.  This would be the most likely source of change.  In theory, when this is next discussed in December of 2025, the two sides might not be able to come to an agreement.  In this case, we would see a player’s strike or a “lockout”.  In lockouts, players refuse to engage in any baseball related business until a deal is made between the MLBPA and MLB.  Baseball has made lockouts famous.  The MLBPA has closed their doors on MLB 9 times since 1966.  The 1994 strike was arguably the worst when the players went on strike on Aug. 11 and the sport halted, mid-season.  This was the first time in American sports history that a champion was not crowned (Fagan). Congratulations to the Montreal Expos who had a record of 74-40 at the time of the lockout (first in the league). Sadly, the Expos would leave Montreal in favor of Washington D.C. in 2005 having never won a championship for the French-Canadien capital.  The franchises’ only World Series title came in 2019 as the Washington Nationals (Hybl).  The reason for the 1994 strike: revenue sharing.  If the path to player compensation comes from a CBA, it could resemble the 1994 strike in theory and having fans crown another team the “1994 Expos”.  If there is one thing we can learn from the ghosts of strikes past, it is that if there is a solution by way of CBA, it will be chaotic for lack of better terms.

Many athletes may have these thoughts about the gambling industry but do not have the standing to do anything about it without the help of the MLBPA or the US Government.  That does not mean that they are hopeless from getting in on the gambling revenue in unique and creative ways to say the least.  Lebron James is one of the most well-known basketball players on earth.  Playing over 21 years in the NBA, James has enjoyed a net worth of $1.2 Billion (Forbes).  That has not stopped him from pursuing more. Recently, James agreed to an employment contract with the sports gambling company, DraftKings.  Upon first glance, it may seem like James is participating in a violation of the NBA’s prohibition on gambling by profiting from a sports gambling company, but through a loophole, James, again, became a pioneer of the sports world by being the first active professional athlete to be employed in sports gambling as a Talent Ambassador, consulting on football related activities.  By avoiding basketball in his moonlighting, James’ employment is seemingly legal (Choi).  For now, this is a win for all athletes, but only the top 0.001% of athletes will find it fruitful. No one has a way of knowing if this will ever be challenged by the NBA, but at least it paves a path to shrink the economic gap between the professional sports leagues, and the athletes that are responsible for their financial success in gambling.

The parent leagues’ (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, NCAA) reservations about players and employees profiting from gambling do not go without merit. Pete Rose has more hits than anyone in baseball history with 4,256. To put that in perspective, second on the all-time hits record board is Ty Cobb (4,189) who last played in 1928 (Baseball Reference).   Even after eclipsing this tremendous feat, Rose is not enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame.  This is because Pete Rose is banned for life from baseball for, allegedly, betting on games that he was managing as coach of the Cincinnati Reds.  It is estimated that during a three-month span in 1987, Pete Rose lost over $450,000 in gambling dues. This was only discovered after bet slips with his name on them were found in an Ohio restaurant (Sutelan). From the leagues position, he could have made calls during the game for the best interest of his bets and not his team. After years of investigations, Rose and Commissioner Bart Giamatti agreed terms to end the legal battle in trade of Pete Rose accepting to be put on baseball’s ineligible list on August 23^rd, 1989 (Baseball Almanac).  Commissioner Giamatti died suddenly of a heart attack on September 1^st, 1989. Every commissioner since has had the opportunity to reinstate Pete Rose. Most recently with Commissioner Robert Manfred in 2015, each has denied reinstatement on grounds that he tarnished the integrity of the game (Axisa). Commissioner Manfred, coincidently, is the commissioner that has gladly accepted Billions of dollars from DraftKings. In theory, is it not true that Commissioner Manfred could profit off of the outcomes of games that he could advertise using the platform DraftKings provides to him? The MLB and DraftKings recently agreed on the ability to stream games from within the DraftKings app (DraftKings Press Release).  If integrity is what we are going to protect, it should start with the commissioner recusing himself and the MLB from all legal gambling deals until the players are able to receive gambling profit from the same deals.

There is no black and white solution to avoid athletes at all levels from being exploited by their parent leagues, who have repeatedly shunned the gambling world since the days of the Black Sox Scandal. Leagues will continue to profit from the sweat of these athletes while standing at a podium, with a backdrop of DraftKings and MLB logos behind them, at the MGM Grand Plaza in Vegas, stating the league has an epidemic on their hands with athletes gambling.  This is not the example we want to set for our young athletes. We do not want to show them that it is okay to be bullied into working hard to help line someone else’s pockets while the league exploits their name, image, and likeness in an industry that they are forbidden from making a dime from. Prior to the 2018 Supreme Court Case of Murphy v. NCAA, MLB signed a deal with DraftKings.  At that time, DraftKings was known as a platform for daily fantasy sports which have been legal in most states since 2013. Current Commissioner Rob Manfred was asked about the future of baseball’s relationship with the gambling industry after the deal was signed in 2015 with Manfred responding, “I think there is a clear legal line, and quite frankly, we’ve spent some considerable effort and money to make sure we knew where DraftKings was in relation to that line,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “We’re very comfortable with the idea that it’s fantasy.” (Fisher) Commissioner Manfred, it is no longer fantasy, it is a hypocrisy, and you’ve crossed the line.

-Irrelevant

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Forbes. “LeBron James.” Forbes, 23 July 2024, 

Hernandez, Joe. “Sports Betting Ads Are Everywhere. Some Worry Gamblers Will Pay a Steep Price.” NPR, 18 June 2022

“How Much Do Leagues Stand to Gain from Legal Sports Betting?” American Gaming Association, 18 Oct. 2018 How Much Do Leagues Stand to Gain from Legal Sports Betting? - American Gaming Association

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Shannon, Erik (2020) "The Federalism Jackpot in Murphy v. NCAA: Going All In On Anti-Commandeering Fails to Protect the Vulnerable," Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice: Vol. 41 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/policypractice/vol41/iss1/1

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