Managing the action: sports bookmakers as entrepreneurs

More and more states have moved to legalize various forms of gambling as a viable way to raise substantial revenues. And while some have considered ad ding sports betting to their menu of games, Nevada continues to be the only state where placing a bet on sports events is legal. This is both puzzling and ironic considering the popularity of gambling and the prominence of sp orts. Despite the lack of concrete knowledge about illegal sports betting, two justifications or keeping it illegal have dominated the public debate. The first has to do with whether legal sports betting could successfully co mpete with illegal operations were it to be legalized and the second has to do with a purported link between gambling on sports and organized crime. This paper focuses on the second line of argument and examines the social, organizational, and occupational features of bookmaking. If bookmakers are conduits for organized crime, as is claimed, there should be evidence of th is in the day-to-day activities of bookmaking and in the career trajectorie s of bookmakers. The analysis is based upon interviews with 47 sports bookm akers working in the Rust Belt region. Drawing upon what sports bookies the mselves have to say about their experiences in the business and their caree r trajectories, there appears to be little merit to the organized crime lin k argument. The analysis suggests that unlike other types of deviance, the social organization of bookmaking insulates bookies from the more typical c onsequences associated with frequent are prolonged deviant activity, for ex ample, getting arrested, being prosecuted, serving time in prison, and forc ed association with other criminals. In fact, the findings suggest that boo kies are mor:e like entrepreneurs than criminals. While a single study cann ot resolve the normative question about whether sports bookmaking should be criminalized, the findings do show that the social construction of bookmak ing and bookmakers found in the public debate and popular culture does not reflect the reality of sports bookmaking.