sports gambling

Here's something Marc Cuban wrote in his http://blogmaverick.com today. Wanna Bet ? Its been a month since the Super Bowl. March Madness is here and the NCAA march to the Final Four is about to begin. What is the common element between the two ? Gambling. EVeryone is going to be asked to participate in an office , school or online pool to predict the winner, and most likely some other derivative outcome. The score after a quarter, number of wins for a conference, whatever. And when we get to the final two teams, then someone from each school is going to make a public wager that prominently features something of pride from their school. And all of it is illegal. And everyone does it. We just hope we dont get Neuheisel�d. That someone we work with wont turn us in and make a big stink over it for some reason. So why is it that we can and do bet on the outcome of the big sporting events in this country by the millions, but gambling is illegal ? Why is it that we can go to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or any of a hundred plus boats, reservations or other locations, in municipalities who found themselves in a position where they needed money ? What made gambling ok in those locations, but not others ? Of course we can buy lottery tickets everywhere and anywhere. Its so easy, that we never read about suckers falling for the email lottery scams. Of course there is also poker. THe same game many of us have played penny ante since we were kids, can now be found on tv every other minute. Its probably the most widely broadcast �sport� and its only reason for being is gambling. Then of course there is gambling online. Not just poker, but hundreds of other games that have been around for a long time, with many others being invented by the week. Can we live in an era of any more hypocrisy ?