MLB Commish Opens Door to Legalized Gambling: ‘We Are Reexamining Our Stance’ – Mediaite

The major professional sports leagues have begun to embrace or, at least, take steps toward embracing the concept of legalized sports gambling. The NFLs Oakland Raiders may possibly move to Las Vegas. The NHL has already established the first major pro sports franchise in the city. And NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has come out in favor of sports betting.

And now, Major League Baseball appears to be softening its stance against legalized wagering. At a forum hosted by Yahoo! Finance on Wednesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged that sports betting happens, and questioned whether his sports opposition to the practice was an outdated position.

We are reexamining our stance on gambling, Manfred said. Its a conversation thats ongoing with the owners.

Manfred seemed to be making much of the same argument that Silver did in his New York Times op-ed, saying that federal regulation could prove beneficial to the sport.

I think the question for sports is really, Are we better off in a world where we have a nice, strong, uniform, federal regulation of gambling that protects the integrity of sports, provides sports with the tools to ensure that there is integrity in the competition Or are we better off closing our eyes to that and letting it go on as illegal gambling? And thats a debatable point.

Watch above, via Yahoo! Finance.

[image via screengrab]

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MLB Commish Opens Door to Legalized Gambling: 'We Are Reexamining Our Stance' - Mediaite