It's time for Iowa to approve sports betting

Delaware almost was smart enough to do it. Why shouldn't Iowa seize on Delaware legislators' hesitancy?

Tuesday, Gov. Jack Markell's proposal to expand gambling in Delaware was defeated by two votes in that state's House of Representatives, with 23 for, 15 against, and three abstentions. It needed 60 percent, or 25 of the 41 votes, to pass.

The most noteworthy part of Markell's proposal was legalized sports betting. That exists in one U.S. state, Nevada. Iowa can and should be second.

Of course, representatives of the NCAA and National Football League lobbied to try to stop the Delaware bill from passing. Those are two high-powered organizations.

The NFL "hates" gambling. It doesn't hate gambling enough to muzzle fantasy football fans, who do play for money. It doesn't hate the fact a big part of the NFL's lure is that it is America's favorite game for gambling. It just doesn't want people betting on its games.

Never underestimate the NFL, by the way. I've been to Super Bowls. The NFL takes over cities, and has them organized with precision that few governments in the worlds can rival for any endeavor. If the government put the NFL in charge of national infrastructure, our bridges and roads would be better and safer within a year.

Wednesday, Markell was undeterred.

"We're going to keep fighting, and I believe we're going to get this bill through,"  he said.

To heck with Delaware. Someday, a state will realize it can get a tourism bounce simply by making sports betting legal. Iowa, which already has casinos in virtually every region of the state, might as well be the one.

Come here for the gay marriages. Stay so you can put 50 bucks on the Celtics-Magic game.

My city, Cedar Rapids, could use a tourist attraction right about now, and it could use another bright spot on the downtown battling to bounce back after it was flooded 11 months ago.

Cedar Rapids has vetoed having a casino in the past. Fine. But many U.S. cities have off-track horseracing betting parlors that aren't a blight on their cityscapes. Indianapolis does. So does Chicago. Midtown Manhattan, too.

Even Portland, Ore., has them, as I was surprised to accidentally learn on a downtown walk there in March. Betting on horses and dogs is acceptable almost everywhere in this country. Betting on ballgames is done in secrecy. But it is done.

So have a sports book in downtown Cedar Rapids, and maybe in three or four other cities around the state. If you're worried about having them in Division I towns, keep them out of Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Falls-Waterloo and Ames.

And if you're terribly afraid Iowa's Division I football and men's basketball players will be poked and prodded for information by gamblers lurking on every corner on campuses, make betting on Iowa schools off-limits in the books.

Although, if anything  could have made the men's basketball teams of Iowa and Iowa State more interesting last winter ...

Nevada used to forbid wagering on UNLV and University of Nevada games. Then it allowed it. The world didn't spin off its axis. There's been point-shaving by athletes at Northwestern and Toledo, not UNLV.

News flash: People all over the nation bet on sports. So get in on the action, Iowa, and grab a larger piece of the gambling pie. Make this the destination for Super Bowl, BCS championship, Final Four and even World Cup parties in the Midwest.

Oh, the cash Iowa could reel in on the first week of the NCAA tournament. It isn't as if everybody and their monkeys aren't putting money in NCAA tourney pools. The state gets none of that.

OK, that's not much of an argument for sports books. Any gambling activity in which 100 percent of what is wagered gets returned to the bettors is a beautiful thing.

But for all those who would like to fly to Vegas and spend four days out there for the first- and second-rounds of the tourney but can't spare the time or cash, why not spend a couple days in Cedar Rapids? Watch all the games with like-minded fans in the comfort of a sports book.

All the wailing such a thing would produce from the NCAA and Iowa's universities ... who cares? This year's men's Final Four was held in Detroit. There, North Carolina guard Ty Lawson won $250 playing craps in a casino. Legally.

"If we don't want those kids doing it, don't put a Final Four in a city where the casino is 500 yards from our front door," said UNC Coach Roy Williams. "And they got a great buffet in there, I mean, come on."

Iowa's basically been all-in when it comes to gambling for a lot of years now, between casinos, lotteries and racetracks. But legal sports betting would be a novelty visitors can't get anywhere but Nevada.

Our state didn't turn into Gomorrah when it added Prairie Meadows, or when it added Powerball, or when it plopped casinos hither and yon. None of those things made us a cultural mecca, that's for sure. But if some poor sap betting on a Stanley Cup playoff game can help keep my state tax toll from getting higher, drop the puck and open the betting windows.

Heck, just have one sports book for starters, a nice, new joint on the Cedar Rapids riverfront with plush seating, dozens of high-def television screens, and a burger bar with only the highest-grade of ground beef. You could bet on Kobe Bryant's Lakers while enjoying Kobe beef.

Er, I meant Iowa beef.

So, what do you think? It's poll time!

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