O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
“Say, is this a game of chance?” a card-playing rube asked dealer W.C. Fields in the 1940s movie My Little Chickadee.
“Not the way I play it,” Fields’ character, Cuthbert J. Twillie, answered.
Showman P.T. Barnum was the self-described Prince of Humbugs in the 19th century but a royal flush line of succession from Manchester’s own Commodore Nutt, a Barnum staple, to Fields, to baseball superstar Shohei Otani’s translator Ippei Mizuhara embezzling $17 million from his boss, is casting an insidious Humbug shadow.
Mizuhara’s huge betting losses were incurred through patronizing illegal bookies, not through the soon-to-be mentioned DraftKings and FanDuel.
Professional basketball’s Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones were indicted last week for several gambling cons involving three Mafia families, a poker table that could X-ray an opponent’s cards from beneath and a game-ending injury claimed by Rozier in the first quarter of a 2023 game. The considerable amount bet on the “under” for Rozier’s total offensive output for the game in question was immediately seen as suspicious. Reportedly, the “marks” or “pigeons” were relieved of seven million dollars through the Mob fixes. Pay up or your kneecaps won’t work none too good. So much for victimless crime.
This week’s gambling scandal involves a pair of Cleveland Guardians’ major league pitchers. Four-time MLB all-star Emmanuel Clase, who has a $4.5 million contract, is accused of intentionally throwing balls instead of attempted strikes on designated pitches. Why he would do this for $5,000 to $7,000 per errant toss is a head scratcher. Teammate Luis L. Ortiz only makes $782,600.
What makes much of this possible are gambling giants DraftKings and FanDuel. New Hampshire has partnered with the former since 2019. When I wrote a 2022 article for New Hampshire Business Review about The Brook, DraftKings’ new Seabrook betting emporium, I had to use the word “gaming” instead of “gambling.” Now DraftKings is the official sports betting partner of the NBA and you can place any and all of the thousands of daily offered bets through a DraftKings phone app. You can bet whether the next Patriots’ offensive play will be a run or a pass or which player will score the first goal in an National Hockey League game. You can bet on NASCAR, beach volleyball, Russian Grand Prix auto racing and British darts. You can bet on whether the next Cleveland Guardians pitch will be a ball or a strike. DraftKings has two gambling parlors in Nashua and one each in Manchester, Dover and Seabrook.
The days of betting on the Patriots to “win” a game vs. the point spread are passe. Why wait three hours to find out whether your bet is a loser or a winner? Today’s untamed bets offer continuous action for “fish,” inexperienced bettors, and more opportunity for “whales,” professional gamblers behind the carefully constructed and almost always illegal Big Cons.
In 1980, I wrote an article for the weekly and now-retired Manchester Journal about compulsive gamblers. I was given permission to attend a Gamblers Anonymous meeting consisting of eight middle-aged men. One participant had his wife cut out the sports pages and stock tables from the newspaper before giving it to him. Another would place a quarter on the ledge of an overhead light fixture when he made a score, knowing he would need that quarter in the near future when he inevitably tapped out.
In a November, 2024 New Hampshire Business Review article, Ed Talbot, founder and executive director of the New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling, had this to say: “One alarming statistic I just saw is the highest percentage of people indicating a potential problem is the 17-24 age group…To me that just says the problem is going to be more so.”
Full disclosure: I spent a decade working in thoroughbred racing press boxes in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Two major issues in the sport are adequate funding for thoroughbred aftercare and lack of national uniformity as to what is or is not a drug violation. Crooked trainers are in a race with the chemists. 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit was disqualified after his post-race blood test revealed one picogram (one trillionth of a gram) of a prohibited substance in his system. Kentucky has a zero tolerance policy. Another state may not. Whales are always looking for fish to circle.
Simply put, New Hampshire gambling revenues are up while lottery and liquor store revenues are down. The Big Con here is the state’s willingness to trade long term gambling problems and ruined lives for short term mo’money. Desperate people do desperate things. It’s not if but when New Hampshire will be hit with a gambling scandal. Underage teens around the country are already registering to bet online with personal info “borrowed” from an uncle.
The New Hampshire Council on Problem Gambling has a 24/7 hot line at 603-724-1605. There are four weekly Gamblers Anonymous meetings in southern New Hampshire.