Adam Silver on Gambling and the NBA: ‘Good for Business’
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has doubled down on his initial stance that sports betting should be legalized in the U.S.
Silver stunned many after writing an op-ed piece in the New York Times last fall suggesting that sports gambling should be “brought out of the underground”.
On Monday, the NBA Commissioner took things one step forward.
"It's good for business, I don't want to hide from that," Silver said on the Boomer & Carton show Monday morning.
"I did speak to all the other commissioners," he added. "There was a range of reactions. Some were, ‘What are you doing?' Others were, ‘Let's study it, seems like an interesting idea.' And that is not that we're necessarily out there promoting sports betting, but the latest estimate is there's somewhere between $300 and $400 billion a year being bet on sports in this country."
The NBA has already dipped its toes into the world of gambling in a sense by entering into sponsorship deals with daily fantasy sports company DraftKings.com.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com