[NU Sports] gambling and college athletes (fwd)

[Sanford_Stein at rush.edu]

It seems unfair to me to dump on college athletes who engage
in Internet betting (assuming that they stay away from any game
over which their participation has an influence) when gambling has
become so pervasive in our economic system:   State lotteries to
fund education, casinos in almost every state, etc.  After all, what is
the stock market but one big casino?

I don't condone any of this (the lotteries in particular constitute a
regressive tax on the poor), but that's the way society has been
moving in the lifetime of these college kids, so it is not hard to see
why they find nothing wrong with sports betting.