A piece of the action
Dan Etna, co-chair of Herrick's Sports Law Group, spoke to NJ.com regarding the landscape of illegal sports betting in an article that examined an alleged illegal sports gambling scheme that involved over a dozen people, including college athletes, and a "mob-connected operation stretching from New Jersey to the Caribbean."
The article notes that while sports betting is legal in New Jersey as well as 38 other states, "sports betting in the shadows has never disappeared. That may largely be due to its promise of higher stakes wagering, big lines of credit, complete anonymity and, perhaps most significantly, complete tax avoidance"
"Still, it’s not just convenience, or the betting odds, that keep bookies in business," according to Dan.
“You think about it like, ‘OK, there’s no way so-and-so is going to lose this game,’ and the team loses,” Dan said. “Instead of having to lay the cash out and kiss it goodbye, you let it ride. And who knows, maybe by the end of the week or whatever the settlement period is, you’re either back to zero or you’re actually up.”
There are also types of bets that can only be made through a bookie, such as the “if” bet.
As in “if” Notre Dame wins on Saturday in the afternoon game, “then I want to bet USC in the evening,” Etna offered as an example. A bettor cannot use that method in legal online sportsbooks.
Read the full article in NJ.com here. Access may require a subscription.