Budget:A method for Going Broke a little slower

Sometimes you wonder about self-destruction. One of the current "scandals" floating around is a gambling "ring"involving numerous hockey people...coaches, players, former players. Now, I personally am a big hockey guy. I think it is fun to attend, good to watch in person, and I, unlike most people I know, will even watch NHL on TV...college, no, but pros yes.
IN most senses of the secular word, pro hockey players have it "made"...they make more money in a year than I will make in my lifetime, make their living playing a game, and have the opportunity for fame and fortune. They travel frequently (on someone else's dime) and, if you are in to that sort of thing, have the chance to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh with numerous, numerous people. From the outside, it looks like a pretty good life.
Of course, it is not enough. Media reports have several players, former players, and even a coach or two involved in a highly illegal, possibly mob-driven ring of illegal gamblers. This situation has all the earmarks of a BALCO redux where a relatively innocent seeming report is followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth until before you know it you are enveloped in an avalanche of negativity, illegality, and sordid crimes.
And the natural, to me, question is...why?
Not the why you might expect after that...it stands to reason I would question the lucidity of someone who would risk a multi-million dollar contract and lifestyle for a few thousand dollars. And, indeed, that is a legitimate question that I have some interest in. But it is not the current question.
That question revolves more around why betting on athletics is held to such a double standard. It is big, big business. You can do it all you want in Nevada. I have not researched this, but I believe you can also bet to your heart's content in Atlantic City. It is no problem to bet "offshore" through a simple web link. In Oregon, you can even bet on football and baseball when you stop to fuel up your car.
Sports gambling is all-pervasive in society. It is one of the worst kept "secrets" in history that millions upon millions of people engage in Super Bowl pools, bet on the Final Four in "office pools", and so forth even though both of these things are blatant violations of the law. It made the news when Rick Neuheisel, high-profile coach of the Washington Huskies was in trouble for participating in...wait for it...a $5.00 Final Four office pool. This was a man making, at the time, 7 figures for coaching the football team. Yes, he got in trouble for a $5 bet, if I recall correctly.
Yet during the recent Super Bowl the mayors of several towns, including Seattle, made public bets over the outcome of the games including products worth far more than 5 bucks. I have heard of no complaints about this. I am idly curious who paid for the shipping by the losers...hopefully not the taxpayers, because that to me would be far more aggriegious a crime than some stupid bet of a salmon versus Carolina ribs over who won a football game, though both activities are of the same legality.
So why does Neuheisel get blasted but the Governor is praised? Why are the hockey studs in trouble for something a significant portion of the population engages in, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally?
The real irony here is I am the epitome of an anti-risk taker. I do not gamble because I don't want to risk anything, not even a penny, on something I am not 100% sure of. I should not say I would not gamble...in my prime, I would have laid down a sawbuck that I could beat anyone I played in a game of 1 on 1 basketball...or foosball, for that matter...but was it really gambling when I KNEW I would win?
Yet in this column I am defending the ILLEGAL gamblers. Yes, I know, typically I am completely against law breaking. Of course, when there is a clear double standard, I like to think I am open enough to admit that and work against it.
This hockey thing should not be a scandal. I am not sure that in this case it is their behavior that is out of line but rather it is the contradictory laws that need the correction. The real scandal here is that government justifies their own gambling but won't let anyone else in on the racket. Leave it alone. TIme for that to change. Either that, or I expect to see the governors of virtually every NFL team that made the playoffs serving time for their crime, along with the police involved in Super Bowl pools, Final Four brackets, and every other illegal bit of gambling. Until then, the real scandal is not the players gambling, it is the contradictory and selectively enforced laws.