This story was published 12/09/2001 by the Features desk. With headline: Sports and gambling -- the American way? The Times Newspapers -- www.thetimesonline.com Sports and gambling -- the American way? Office pools, point spreads, off-track/off-shore betting, illegal bookies -- you name it, we bet on it. BY JERRY DAVICH Times Features Writer Americans love to gamble on sporting events -- whether it's a friendly $5 bet on today's Bears-Packers game, a $50 wager at a local off-track horse racing parlor, or a $500 stake with an online sports booking firm in Costa Rica. Even the Puritans gambled on horse buggy races and quilt making contests, history books tell us. But these days, sports gaming -- both legal and illegal -- is big business, recession or no recession. "It's huge, but most of it is illegal, so it is tough to get an accurate dollar number," said Steven Skiena, author of "Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and Mathematical Modeling to Win" (Cambridge University Press 2001). Last year, $2.3 billion was legally wagered through sports books in Nevada, the country's only fully legalized state for such gambling, according to the American Gaming Association, a lobbyist group in Washington, D.C. Some forms of gambling also are permitted in Oregon, Montana and Wyoming, though to a much lesser degree. Illegal betting, that's another matter. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission's final report in 1999 estimated that illegal wagers hover near $380 billion annually. And that figure hasn't dipped, experts say. "I've heard numbers as high as $500 billion per year," said Skiena, a professor of computer science at SUNY Stony Brook College in New York, noting that it's virtually impossible to track illegal betting. And although illegal bookies are still taking bets on everything from college football and pro basketball to dog racing and jai-alai (a variant of handball), Internet gambling offers sports-savvy gamblers the chance to place wagers anonymously while dodging the long arm of the law. "I've never heard of a case where someone has been convicted of placing a bet on the Internet," said Rob Gillespie, operations manager at BoDog Sportsbook & Casino, an online sportsbook firm based in Costa Rica. Gillespie, whose personal office is in Vancouver, Canada, said his off-shore headquarters shares space with 70 other similar firms in the same Costa Rica complex. And because it's illegal for an American to either place bets or accept bets outside of Nevada, BoDog doesn't hire anyone from this country. Or from Costa Rica, a hot spot for off-shore gambling firms. "There's a lot of gray area when you're talking about Internet sports gambling. We just want to make sure we're covered," he said, no pun intended. $110 will get you $100 Though Internet gambling is outlawed here, it's legal in at least 50 other countries, including Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and Australia. "The Australians are apparently the most enthusiastic gamblers in the world. I recently saw a math textbook from there trying to teach math by giving the odds to all the different games and sports," Skiena said. BoDog, a relative newcomer to the online playing field, has built a player base of 5,000 betters since hitting the scene in March. After an initial minimum deposit of $50 - via credit cards, Western Union or bank wire -- players, 18 years and older, can bet on virtually every sport, including tennis and martial arts. But at this time of year, football rules -- at both the college and professional level. "Horse racing is probably the most popular sport to legally bet on, but football clearly has more action ... it's the biggest gambling establishment," Skiena said. Gillespie said the most common form of football betting is predicting which team will win against the point spread, a term used to make the game even by adding points to the score of the underdog or subtracting points from the favorite. But bettors also wage cash on total points scored, half-time scores and even who scores first, among dozens of other possible angles. With most online gambling formats, bettors spend $1.10 for every $1 waged, with the sportsbooking firm cleaning up all those dimes. In other words, let's say you want to bet $100 on the Bears today against the Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. You'd have to pay $110 up front, and if the Bears win you receive $100 back. The $10 goes to the sportsbooking firm. "The advantage of gambling on sports over casino games is that they're more trustworthy ... there's no chance of them being rigged," Gillespie said, noting that bettors can wager from $10 on up. "We limit it when it gets near $20,000." With off-track horse racing -- where bettors wage money at parlors instead of tracks -- about 80 percent of all bets goes back to paying the winners while the other 20 percent is taken by the "house," or parlor. "The important thing to remember is that you're not betting against the house, just each other," said Tom Bannon of Hoosier Park at Anderson, the off-track betting firm that operates Trackside in Merrillville. "We make our money either way," he said. At Trackside, bettors wage money on 16 horse races a day from the 130 or so tracks in the country, viewing them simultaneously on closed-circuit television. Last year, Hoosier Park alone took in $115 million at its three off-track parlors in this state. "Thoroughbred racing is the most popular," Bannon said. What are the odds for legalization? In 1997, the U.S. Senate passed the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, amending the federal criminal code to prohibit and set penalties for Internet gambling. But there are notable exceptions for state lotteries and horse racing. John Kindt is an economics professor who teaches courses in commerce and legal policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kindt is adamant when he says that sports gambling not only undermines the integrity of sports, it also needs to be re-criminalized before it gets any more out of hand. "If you legalize sports gambling, it will ruin collegiate sports and make a mockery of the Olympics," said Kindt, who's written 30 articles on the subject. "Plus it will tempt players to fix games for profit." Last month, Nevada gaming operators were dealt a tough hand when the state's gaming control board chairman noted that he hasn't found a single state's law that expressly authorizes its residents to bet on Internet casinos. "In every case, (Internet gambling) is always fuzzy or not legal," Dennis Neilander said at the time. Nevada gaming lobbyists claim that these off-shore, online firms allow unlicensed, untaxed, unsupervised operators to engage in wagering that would otherwise be subject to strict federal and state controls. Kindt says that Nevada is "spitting in the face of the U.S. Congress" by trying to expand its gaming market. Ron Phillips, director of the Fort Wayne-based Indiana Council on Problem Gambling, said illegal sports betting is so widespread it's hard to quantify just how big of a problem it really is. "But I do believe it's turning many college kids into bookies," he said. Sociologists tend to take a broader look at the sports gambling phenomenon, quickly noting how Americans often turn a blind eye to its ubiquitous trappings and allure. "This type of behavior is not defined as particularly evil or deviant. It's embedded in the American psyche as acceptable and commonplace," said sociologist Charles Gallmeier of Indiana University Northwest. "This culture has always applauded those who take risks. It's all about the adventure," he said. "And taking part in sports gambling is not much different in our eyes. It's very hard to legislate morality." Jerry Davich can be reached at jerryd@howpubs.com or (219) 933-3243. __________________________________________________ Breakout: How common are these sports gambling terms in our daily vernacular? ACROSS THE BOARD Method of wagering on a horse to win, place and show BOOK An establishment that accepts wagers on the outcome of horseracing and sporting events. BOOKIE Person who takes bets from the clients. COVER To win the game by the required number of points; if such occurs you have "covered the spread". DAILY DOUBLE Type of wager calling for the selection of winners of two consecutive horse races DEAD HEAT When two or more horses or dogs finish in a tie LOCK Sure or easy winner. LONGSHOT A team or horse that is unlikely to win. Large underdog POINTSPREAD Only used in football and basketball, to make the game even by adding points to the score of the underdog or sustracting points from the favorite. SCALPER Someone who attempts to profit from the differences in odds from book to book by betting both sides of the same game at different prices. SMART MONEY Sides that are bet on by the more knowledgeable handicappers. Breakout: Did you know? If you placed a $100 bet on the Chicago Bears winning the Super Bowl this season, you could rake in $8,500 if they go all the way. But that was before the season started, when their odds of doing so were 85 to 1. After their strong start this year, their new odds have dropped to 5 to 1.