Sure, let's add sports gambling. How many more lives could the vice ruin?

Daniel P. Finney | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption What the Supreme Court decision means for sports betting SportsPulse: Supreme Court reporter Richard Wolf breaks down the SCOTUS ruling on sports betting in the United States, and what it could mean for the future of gambling in professional and college sports.

If I were a betting man, which I have been at times, I'd put my chips down that Iowans will legally be able to wager on the Cy-Hawk football game by fall 2019.

The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for the potential of sports betting in all states with a decision on a case from New Jersey.

Is this good news?

As my friend and colleague Randy Peterson points out in his column, nationwide sports gambling could lead to point-shaving in basketball and other gambling-inspired cheating.

Maybe it makes the Iowa-Iowa State games more fun for gamblers when you've got $100 on your team to cover the spread, but does that balance out the worry of game outcomes being controlled by gamblers?

It seems like a lame risk for a cheap thrill. Aren't the games enough entertainment?

Aw, who am I kidding? In America, there is no such thing as too much entertainment.

As for sports betting and gambling as a whole, I don't like it, but I tolerate it. I believe adults ought to be able to do whatever they chose with their time and money — even if it is a dumb idea — as long as they don't hurt other people.

But here's the rub: For a small percentage of people, gambling causes great harm not only to themselves but also to others in their lives.

Studies have shown that about 5 percent of people nationwide are problem or pathological gamblers.

Pathological gambling is classified a mental health disorder.

In Iowa, that amounts to about 150,000 people — bigger than any city in then state other than Des Moines.

Of course, not every Iowan gambles, but plenty do.

Iowa casinos reported nearly 22 million admissions to gaming rooms statewide in the 2017 fiscal year. Admissions mean people who gamble, not just stop by for an all-you-can-eat buffet or a Joan Jett concert.

Obviously, that 22 million figure includes a lot of repeat customers and folks from out of state, too.

But Iowa is mostly a convenience gambling state, meaning people from the area do it for entertainment, as opposed to tourism gambling, like in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

Those 22 million customers lost nearly $1.5 billion at Iowa casinos in 2017. That averages out to $67 per visitor.

That's not so much for a night out, I suppose.

But how much will losses-per-gambler go up when sports betting is added to the mix? What happens when we allow the stakes to be raised with outfits like DraftKings and FanDuel?

"We're talking about going from a horse-and-buggy operation to a supersonic jet when it comes to gambling," said Tom Coates, executive director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines, a credit counseling agency that helps people deep in debt, sometimes caused by gambling addictions.

Coates worries that the combination of society's passion for sports and the ease by which bets can be placed by apps on smartphones will manufacture problem gamblers.

"The pump has already been primed," Coates said. "Kids who play games on their phones rack up hundreds of dollars on their parents' credit cards buying characters, abilities and backgrounds. When those kids become of legal age, they're going to be gambling even more money on their fantasy sports rosters and even play-by-play during games. And there's going to be more gambling addicts, more broken families and ruined lives."

Lawmakers, of course, will have their eyes on the revenue sports gambling can generate.

Iowa casinos payed about $289 million in state taxes in 2017 without sports gambling.

Since the state government seems perpetually broke, even with current gambling revenues, I can't image a scenario where sports betting doesn't become a part of Iowa's landscape.

The Iowa Legislature spent the first third of this session figuring out what cuts to make in services and employees to make ends meet on the previous fiscal year.

Will a few more million bucks paid by casinos from sports betting help the shortfalls?

Why not let sports gamblers pay a little extra for all the fun they're having losing money? We already soak the cigarette smokers and drinkers with so-called "sin taxes."

"From a libertarian point of view, gambling is something like a voluntary tax," said Mack Shelley, Iowa State University political science and statistics professor. "But there is also the question of moral turpitude, to use an old-fashioned term. Is it right for us use money lost by people to pay for the needs of society?"

What kind of society do we want to have?

We want good school buildings, roads and ambulances. We just don't want to pay for them with income and property taxes.

We are willing to pay for them with money skimmed off the profits made from people who lose their Social Security check at the slots or blow their rent money on their Bears-Packers game.

So, what's the right thing when it comes to sports betting?

Eric Preuss, the Iowa Deparmebt of Public Health official who oversees gambling treatment, said "Iowans know help is availabile” through 1-800-BETS-OFF and other services.

What I worry about is the Iowans who don't know they have a problem until they've drained their bank accounts, maxed out their credit cards and are on the verge of losing their homes.

The casinos are always quick to point out how small the number of people who are problem gamblers is in comparison with the total number of gamblers.

That's a nice marketing tactic. It ranks right up there with donating money to local communities for baseball uniforms and giraffe barns. It normalizes paying for things society needs with gambling losses.

But I don't like the idea of considering as much as 13 percent of Iowans being acceptable collateral damage for some tax revenue and charity grants.

I was raised Methodist and while I don't practice, there are a few lessons from my church that have always stuck with me. One of them is this statement from the United Methodist Social Principles:

"Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic and spiritual life and destructive of good government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice."

When I read that paragraph, I don't feel so ambivalent about gambling — sports or otherwise — at all.

Columnist Daniel P. Finney grew up in Winterset and east Des Moines. Reach him at dafinney@dmreg.com.