Same as it ever was

Now that the US Supreme Court has declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional and paved the way for legalized sports wagering across the country, yet more folks will make money at the expense of college athletes.

I'm not going to rehash the holding of the court because that heavy lifting has already been done. My focus is, instead, on the continued exploitation of college athletes under the guise of amateurism. This quaint notion goes back to 19th century England. The upper class decided their children were too soft from generations of sloth and so they encouraged their children to take up sports. In order to protect their precious snowflakes from the dirty masses, they came up with the idea of amateurism - a concept that allowed those who had the means not to have to work, to compete in athletic competitions with other like-minded souls. This notion extended to the relatively new sport of college football.

Before World War II, college was largely restricted to the children of the wealthy. That began to change after the war with the GI Bill which made college affordable for those who had served in the military. In the 60's - and into the 70's - colleges in the south were finally integrating both their student bodies and their athletic teams. The awarding of athletic scholarships suddenly made a college education for poor and black families.

All of this was well and good while college football remained a regional sport. When I grew up in the 70's and 80's, you were lucky to get three or four college games a Saturday. You would get a nationally televised game on ABC (and mayble a regional one, too). You might get a Notre Dame game and, if you were lucky, a syndicated game of the week. Let's just say the money wasn't exactly rolling into the coffers in those days.

In the 80's many colleges filed suit against the NCAA arguing that its television policies were hurting its members. The schools - and conferences - won the right to negotiate their own television contracts. You also had the birth of ESPN - and ESPN needed programming to fill its schedule.

Suddenly there was an explosion of television money in college sports.We went from a couple of live games a week to somewhere between one and two dozen games every Saturday. Networks paid increasing amounts of money for the rights to broadcast those games and the schools began making money.

Then there was the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It began marketing itself as March Madness. The field expanded from 32 to 48 to 64 to 68 teams. CBS and Turner pay billions of dollars to televise the games.

Coaches were the first to reap the rewards of television money. Network and advertising executives took their cut. Video game makers created games and made millions off of college athletics. Sporting apparel companies made money selling jerseys and shirts. But the players saw none of it.

Now with sports betting legalized, sports books, casinos and racetracks across the country are gearing up to meet the expected demand. They are all ready to get their cut out of legal betting on college football and basketball games. The NCAA is talking about charging firms who take bets on college sports a fee to pay for increased monitoring of the sport.

But no one is talking about the players getting a piece of the pie. Gaming executives will get theirs. State treasuries will get theirs. Networks and ad agencies will get theirs. The NCAA will get theirs.

Yet once again the athletes will serve as nothing more than the vessel for money passing from one hand to another. Life down on the plantation will continue same as it ever was.

Dirty rotten scoundrels

If you want to see your tax dollars at work, you need to check out Michael McKnight's piece on SI.com about the point shaving scheme at the University of San Diego.

Now, before I go any further I must say that sports are entertainment. Yes, a sporting event is the ultimate reality show but, in the end, the game is meant to entertain. Fans have a multitude of entertainment options and sports must compete with restaurants, clubs, the movie theater or the myriad of other things you can spend your hard-earned dollars on.

To this day I don't understand why los federales are interested in alleged point shaving schemes in college sports. The only people who get hurt are the folks who end up betting on the wrong side. We're not talking about throwing games, we're talking about missing a shot here and there or turning the ball over to keep the game within the spread.

Let me repeat, the only folks getting "hurt" are bettors, bookies and the casinos.

As Mr. McKnight points out, the key figure in the alleged scheme was a bookie named Steve Goria. Mr. Goria became the apple in the eyes of los federales when he was stopped at the border with a whole lot of cash - and a map to the pot capital of Northern California. Operation Hookshot was soon born.

The star of the sting was a confidential informant who was looking at a 10-20 year stretch in federal prison for a variety of drug crimes. He was only too willing to help out.

Just to make things more interesting, the informant is represented by the same attorney, Nicholas DePento, who represented Mr. Goria when he was stopped at the border in 2008. That raises questions of whether or not Mr. DePento violated his duty to his former client when he arranged for his current client to become the government's tool.

But the question is whether or not the FBI manufactured this alleged scheme. Did their informant drive the action or was he merely the means of discovering what was going on down by the ocean? Did the FBI stumble onto the scheme when they nabbed Mr. Goria at the border or did they manufacture it?

The evidence compiled by SI.com doesn't seem to indicate that, with the possible exception of one game in 2010, that there was any unusual betting patterns on USD games while the scheme was supposedly going on. And trust me, USD is such a small school that any suspicious bets would be detected quite easily.

What was the point in the investigation? Who benefits from it? And does it make anyone feel better knowing that the key government witness is a convicted felon who is facing a decade or more in prison?

And does it make sense for the government to go around creating criminal acts when there is more than enough real crime going on? If they wanted to go after some folks, why not take a look at the shenanigans in the mortgage-lending industry that helped bring down the economy?

The importance in the story, however, is in laying bare the ways in which our government schemes to entrap people in criminal enterprises. When you lie down with the pigs, you're bound to get dirty.

This table is now closed!

We can all breathe a deep sigh of relief as our government is hard at work keeping us safe from the scourge of online poker.

On Friday, los federales effectively shut down three online poker sites after unsealing indictments alleging bank fraud and money laundering on the part of the executives at PokerStarts, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.

The indictments allege that the sites circumvented a 2006 law forbidding US financial institutions from handling transactions for online gambling sites -- most of which are owned and operated outside the United States. The US government is seeking more that $3 billion in money laundering penalties and

forfeitures.

Now let's be clear on this, no US-based financial institution lost any money as a result of the alleged fraud. Money passed through the banks on its way to customers and owners of the online poker sites. The only folks who lost money were the players themselves.

Our military forces are stuck in a quagmire in the Middle East (didn't see that coming, did you?). TSA employees are groping 6-year-olds (and parents just stand there and watch). The government's heading for a shutdown because lawmakers are realizing there just isn't enough money that can be whacked from the budget (unless someone looks under the mattress at the Pentagon). Unemployment remains high and the rising cost of fuel is threatening to put a damper on the economic recovery. Schools are laying off teachers and the Fourth and Sixth Amendments are under assault daily.

But at least we don't have to worry about people playing poker on their computers.

In the meantime you can still play government-sponsored lotteries that transfer money from the poor to state treasuries. You can still bet on the ponies and the dogs at your local horse or greyhound track. You can even go to legal casinos across the country and burn your money at the slot machines. But no online poker.

That online gambling is bad and the government never could figure out a way to get its hands on the money.

And ultimately, that's what this was all about. It was a giant cash grab by los federales. Meanwhile, the people who cooked the books with the mortgage lenders and banks are still out enjoying cocktails after work with nary a fear of getting pinched by the feds. But going after those crooks would require the government to admit that their regulators were either incompetent or in on the swindle from the get-go.

Almost like watching somone backdoor a flush to top the set you made on the flop.

No quick fix to Galveston's woes

For those of you who don't know, the island of Galveston was hit extremely hard when Hurricane Ike came ashore last September. Reminders of the storm are still everywhere on the island. For months boats were littered along the interstate and the causeway bridge. You can still drive around and see businesses and houses that were destroyed by the storm surge.

Much like New Orleans, a significant portion of Galveston's pre-Ike population has not returned. Also, like New Orleans, Galveston was not a very affluent city before the storm. From the turn of the 20th century up through the 1950's, Galveston was a wild, almost-anything goes town -- the Gulf Coast's equivalent of Atlantic City. Local clubs such as the Balinese Room were legendary for their music, celebrity clientele and gambling.

The Balinese Room was built on a pier out in the Gulf of Mexico. Whenever the Texas Rangers would come a-calling, the warning would come from a look-out running down the pier. The staff and patrons conducted regular fire drills in preparation for police raids. Alas, the Balinese Room was destroyed by Hurricane Ike and is now but a memory.

Galveston was a thriving port city up until the Port of Houston opened. Once the ship channel was carved through Galveston Bay, traffic to the Port of Galveston dried up -- and so did the island's prosperity.

There is now a group of residents who want to "bring Galveston back" by establishing casino gambling on the island. Much like the architects of the "New" Boardwalk in Atlantic City, gambling proponents believe casinos are the panacea to the island's woes. The champions of casino gambling, including Tillman Fertitta, see the scores of cars with Texas plates at casinos in Lake Charles, Shreveport and Bossier City, Louisiana and fantasize about that money staying in Texas.

Now, before I go any further, y'all should know that I love to play poker and blackjack as much as the next guy. I would also like to see our money stay in Texas. But, those who think casino gambling will save Galveston are either delusional or are selling snake oil.

Gambling did not save Atlantic City. Hike one block off the boardwalk and you're in the ghetto. Abandoned buildings and crack houses stand on the streets that inspired the Monopoly board game. The casinos are owned by out-of-state corporations and the vast number of casino employees come from other parts of the state (parking in vast parking lots along the turnpike). Very little money from the gilded casinos finds its way into the coffers of Atlantic City.

The impact of the casinos in Louisiana has been more positive, however, as Galveston's gambling proponents would point out. But, Shreveport, Bossier City and Lake Charles were not in serious decline when legalized gambling came to town. The Louisiana cities also had better infrastructure and a more qualified workforce than Galveston has.

Those cities also had something else that Galveston lacks, room for growth. If you've ever taken 61st Street to Seawall you know that Galveston would have a hard time accomodating much more traffic. Additionally, where would the gamblers park? Space is at a premium on the island, particularly along the seawall.

And we mustn't forget that with inexpensive air fare and a glut of hotel space in Las Vegas, a good time can be had out in the desert for a relative pittance - an option that wasn't available to the masses during Galveston's heyday.

Now I don't know what the answer is for Galveston, but I do know that casino gambling will not solve the island's problems. Like everything else in life, there are no shortcuts.