This morning the work crews had blocked off the intersection of Gay and High Streets and were busy putting up Current, the sculpture that hangs over that intersection during the warmer months of the year. The sculpture isn’t designed to withstand the weight of accumulated snow, ice, and freezing rain, so they take it down over the winter months. It’s actually a bit aggressive to put it up in early April, because Columbus has been known to get April snowstorms from time to time. None are in the short-term forecast–but April weather is notoriously fickle and can turn on a dime. We’ll just have to hope it stays above freezing.
As I watched the workers and cranes hoist Current into place, I was briefly tempted to go up to one of the guys in a hard hat and say, with a serious expression on my face: “Aren’t you hanging it upside down?” They probably wouldn’t have thought that was very funny, however.
Well, we’ve reached Final Four weekend. It’s one of the biggest sports events of the year–which these days necessarily means it’s no doubt one of the bigger sports betting weekends of the year, too. If you’ve not been paying attention to the impact of legal sports gambling, know this: we’ve now reached the point where there are as many TV shows analyzing potential sports bets as there are shows that discuss the actual sports events themselves.
Among the bets that are analyzed on such shows are so-called “prop bets.” The prop bets are different from the familiar “point spread” bets on the ultimate outcome of a contest. “Prop bets” are much more granular, and require gamblers to take a position on a specific proposition–like whether a quarterback will throw over or under 2.5 touchdowns, or whether a team will make over/under 10 three-point shots in a particular game.
There’s a long history of gambling scandals in sports, at both the professional and college level. “Prop bets” seem to involve a lot more risk of gambling interests actually affecting outcomes. If you only have to influence one player to play poorly, that’s a much easier task than recruiting enough players to affect the outcome of a game.
I’m not a betting person, so I’ve never been tempted to make any kind of bet on a sports event, “prop bet” or otherwise. But I’d also like to think I can watch a college football game without fear that a particular player’s performance was influenced by gambling. I’m glad Ohio doesn’t permit “prop bets” in college sports. I hope more states join in what seems like a reasonable regulation of gambling.
Webner House 