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Rozner: NHL to Vegas hardly a roll of dice

Gary Bettman finally broke the ice, becoming the first commissioner to endorse a franchise in Las Vegas.

But the bumbling boss of the NHL wouldn't go so far as embrace legal gambling, preferring to keep it in the shadows and pretend fans can't bet on an NHL game from any seat in any arena from any portable device.

“We don't worry about the integrity of our game,” Bettman told reporters at a Las Vegas news conference last week. “I'm more focused on the atmosphere in the arena, and that's something we're comfortable with going forward.”

Meaning what, whether the sound system will leave you deaf when you walk out after three hours?

“While we know gambling is part of the industry in Las Vegas, we're not going to make it all that easy for you to pick up a gambling ticket on your way into the arena,” Bettman said. “We like the atmosphere in our 30 buildings, and we believe that … we can maintain that atmosphere consistent with what the realities are here.”

So fans can bet illegally from their phones on any of the scores of offshore sites, but they can't stop at a window and place a legal bet that can be tracked by the NHL and Las Vegas authorities?

This is the argument that leaves proponents of legal gambling shaking their heads and reaching for the migraine medication.

No one believes this nonsense, least of all the commissioner.

Bettman doesn't really think the starting goaltender is going to walk to a window and bet against his team on the way into the arena.

There was a time when the NBA did not allow legal betting on its games at the Palms in Las Vegas because the Maloof Brothers owned the Sacramento Kings and the Palms.

And the fear was what, that billionaire owners would try to affect the outcome of a basketball game to make a few dollars on the point spread?

Eventually, the NBA had to let that go because the Harrah's CEO was part owner of the Celtics.

Since Adam Silver has taken over as NBA commissioner, he has recognized the obvious need for gambling on the NBA, seeing the huge popularity of the NFL and college football mostly because there's a point spread on every game.

In 2014, he penned an op-ed in The New York Times, where he pointed to the ineffectiveness of preventing betting by making it illegal.

“Despite legal restrictions, sports betting is widespread,” Silver wrote. “It is a thriving underground business that operates free from regulation or oversight.

“Because there are few legal options available, those who wish to bet resort to illicit bookmaking operations and shady offshore websites.

“There is no solid data on the volume of illegal sports betting activity in the United States, but some estimate that nearly $400 billion is illegally wagered on sports each year.

“But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”

Yes, monitored and regulated.

Some think that number might be closer to a trillion dollars and that the 10 percent going to the house or the corner book would be better served going to your local government, which is probably broke at the moment.

Still, bosses like Bettman pretend it's not happening, that illegal gambling doesn't exist, and the duplicity is really beyond description.

They speak of the sin, yet pro sports have had team owners that ran casinos, teams sponsored by casinos, and leagues with equity stakes in gambling sites like DraftKings and FanDuel.

You might laugh if it didn't make your head hurt so much.

It's like when Illinois says it doesn't want expanded gambling or slots at the racetracks, as if you can be a little bit pregnant.

There's legal gambling or there isn't, so it's OK for the state to have casinos and a lottery, and the corner gas station can have slots, but not a racetrack where they've had regulated and supervised gambling for nearly a century.

Meanwhile, Bettman has accepted Vegas as a franchise because his owners will get fat off expansion fees.

The rest of the leagues will soon follow, but they will pretend to do it grudgingly while insisting there be no betting windows or slots in the stadium corridors, as if that somehow makes accepting the franchise fee a clean transaction.

Oh, the hypocrisy — and the headache.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM.

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