It's just too important not to address this in my blog.  Scandals are running rampant throughout sports, entertainment, politics, and business.  I'm going to focus on sports as there is plenty to cover.

Michael Vick is going to get nailed.   Either he pleads out to a guilty something and gets jail time, or he gets nailed for being a lot more involved in thedog fighting ring than anyone ever imagined.  Gibby puts it well in "Michael Vick did a Good Thing" that the horrific ancient concept of dog fighting is now front and center and we hope that man will cease to put dog against dog in the bloody conflicts that are equal to the ancient Gladiator games of past.  In the end, it seems as though money and fame were not enough for Vick, but that he needed to have more, more money, more power, more "rush" in his life and that was his fix.

Donaghy was a fix, and not just in fixing games, but he got the fix on to get his fix in, gambling fix that is.  What will his penalty be in the end?  Besides the turmoil he will go through as an individual and a family man, he will never ref another game in his life, he is probably, along with his family, subject to mafia threats and other gambling threats that are not legal.  Donaghy = Done.

Tennis - if the 4th round match of a lower tier tennis tournament was fixed, the player needs to get a job.  I'm done with tennis being fixed. 

What do all these have in common - GAMBLING.  The oldest form of entertainment, well, almost the oldest form of entertainment besides prostitution. 

There are two schools of current thought in the business world right now as it relates to sports, gambling, and integrity.  The first, continue to make it all illegal, keep it in vegas, the black market, mafia run, bookie breaking bones routine.  This idea comes from the staunch conservatives and family friendly democrats who are protecting our children, who are in fact most likely, some of the biggest gamblers out there, but they do it on the "DL" or down low for those older folks out there.  I was written to by my Senator here in California that a kid in Ireland had a gambling problem and ran up his parents' credit card bill as a reason to keep it illegal.  A US Senator citing an Irish example?  Ireland is a stretch and not in our control, so let's focus our effort on the business at hand here Senator and take our country to a competitive level of innovation, regulation and legalization.

The second school of thought is to make it all transparent, taxable, and totally legal.  Now, as it relates to dog fighting, I think that should be illegal.  Any sport that is played to the death, with any live being in my mind should not be allowed, except in those ancient traditions of Blood Sport (just kidding, but what a great movie that was). 

Where are my thoughts you ask...most of you can probably guess, but in fact if you can't, I believe it should all be transparent.  The sports betting industry is already in the Billions of dollars, and that means that the US is losing Billions of tax dollars, and actually, enough to put that kid in Ireland through rehab.  Besides money, regulation for legal activities protects people.  By keeping the gambling business on the black market, or mafia run, all you do is create a more dangerous situation for teens, and addicts who will never be "regulated" by a bookie.  If gambling were legalized in the US, you could easily impose limits on the age, amount, frequency, and credit limits of gamblers.  Not only that, but the Donaghy scandal would not have had such a great impact because his gambling issues would have been known well in advance since he would have had to report them on his taxes.  Legalize gambling, tax the winnings of the gambler, the winnings of the Sportsbooks, and create a transparent world where billion dollar industries are controlled, regulated, and monitored...just like alcohol and cigarettes.

What is scandalous?  That gambling is illegal.  That tax dollars are being lost daily, which by the way we desperately need right now.  That Sportsbooks and bookies are more like banks than anything else, except their interest is between 5-10% per day on the investments made on sports.  That good sports investors, bookies, and Sportsbooks manage money arguably better than the savings and loans of the 80's, and the sub-prime lenders of the 2000's.  Finally, that the people who bank with Sportsbooks arguably get more enjoyment out of those banks than the traditional ones. 

If anyone else can name a billion dollar industry that the US Federal government fights instead of regulates I will give you a free PRO membership for a month.  The first person to comment on this blog will win and there is only one winner. 

Do you agree?  Disagree?  Let me hear it.