"Red Sox Baseball Organization Joins Forces With Sponsor Of Online Gambling"

In spite of the fact that a great deal of ongoing controversy is surrounding online gambling, the Boston Red Sox have decided to enter into a contractual agreement with Partypokers.com, a company based in Gibraltar that runs one of the world’s top offshore Internet casinos. This Gibraltar-based off-shore company not only runs Partypokers.com but in addition it also operates Partypokers.net, which is a poker Web site that is just for fun and which is a major Red Sox advertiser. The just for fun site, Partypokers.net was a primary sponsor of Red Sox spring training. It is currently sponsoring a poker tournament between both Red Sox and Yankee fans. The tournament is to be aired over the Red Sox-owned NESN TV network. In order to make sure that it is kept legal, Partypokers.net will of course not allow visitors to place bets using real money. But, just by offering the for fun site, Partypokers.net in fact is promoting online poker playing. In actuality, Partypoker.net is referred to as “the world’s largest school for poker”.

There are those who say that the agreement between the Boston Red Sox and the Partypokers company is in poor taste since many people admire the Red Sox business body and that this associating of the the Red Sox name with Internet gambling, in a way acts to legitimize an industry that is clearly harmful to the Bay State. Gary Thul a member of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion (NCAGE) board is reported as saying that it is both troubling and eyebrow raising for an organization like the Red Sox to enter into a contractual agreement with an Internet gambling company. He sees it as something that the Sox organization should not be involved in.

This position has found support from Rep. David Flynn (D-Bridgewater) who is drafting a bill to stop Massachusetts state gamblers from gambling online. It is his argument that online gambling takes away tax dollars, lacks regulation and is damaging to the state’s legal gaming industry. Flynn is also reported as having commented that he is disappointed by what the Red Sox are doing by their hooking up with the online gambling industry. The way he puts it is that the state is trying to save jobs and to save an industry and the Red Sox who everyone admires are doing something to fuel the fire, in a negative manner.

Tom Grey, whois a spokesman for the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion is reported as stating that he thinks that gambling and professional sports shouldn’t mix. He points to the not so good example of Pete Rose, and stresses that sports organizations have always worked at keeping a distance from gambling. He believes that what the Red Sox are doing is simply to make money.

The government has attempted at the federal level to block people from gambling online. Examples are efforts to block credit card companies from doing business with online companies. There have also been attempts at prosecuting the operators of online gambling and gaming casinos using the Wire Act of the 1960s. The results however, have had little affect on slowing down the tide of growing popularity of Internet gambling. There are also many states such as Massachusetts that do not have formal laws that prohibit online gambling.