First legalized alcohol sales were going to be Mississippi’s savior. Then it was casino gambling. Many have pushed for years for a lottery, saying it will do the trick. Now the latest miracle cure for our educational and social problems is sports gambling.
Mississippians can thank the U.S. Supreme Court for that, which issued an opinion this week allowing states to decide for themselves whether to allow wagering on athletic events.
And the state is ready to go forward with sports books at its Gulf Coast and Mississippi River after sneaking a law quietly through the legislature a couple of years ago in anticipation of the High Court making this ruling.
The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act is an unconstitutional violation of the 10th Amendment, which says all powers not granted by the Constitution to Congress are reserved for the states.
That 1992 law had banned sports gambling in all but four states that were grandfathered in. Now it’s legal in any state that authorizes it after Alito’s strongly worded, 31-page opinion.
He said the anti-sports-gambling law “is as if federal officers were installed in state legislative chambers and were armed with the authority to stop legislators from voting on any offending proposals. A more direct affront to state sovereignty is not easy to imagine.”
Alito admits legalizing sports gambling is a controversial subject, noting supporters say it will produce revenue for states and weaken illegal sports gambling operations, which we all know are hugely prevalent throughout this nation. But the justice also notes opponents say it will hook the young on gambling, encourage poor people to waste their meager earnings and corrupt professional and collegiate sports.
“The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make,” Alito writes. “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not.”
Syndicated columnist Sid Salter noted that Mississippi will be the only state within the Southeastern Conference to allow sports gambling in casinos. You can imagine the action this fall will be heavy.
While I agree with Alito’s reasoning about the federal role in states’ affairs, I don’t think Mississippi entering the world of sports gambling is a good idea. Using vices to generate money hasn’t worked for us so far, and I don’t think it will do much to improve education or much else, other than the pockets of casino owners.
And the costs of corruption among athletes will be a steep one.
