Pro Sports Leagues Gradually Embrace Gambling We've come a long way since Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were banned from baseball for associating with gamblers - not betting on games or tipping them off about injuries, but by shaking their hands as Atlantic City casino greeters. Professional sports leagues that once professed zero tolerance for gambling are moving steadily toward accepting betting on their games, partly because of the futility in fighting it and partly to get a cut of the action. One day after the NBA signed a sponsorship agreement with FanDuel, a website where fans can win (and lose) money playing daily fantasy sports, commissioner Adam Silver wrote in The New York Times that it was time to consider legalizing sports gambling. "There is an obvious appetite among sports fans for a safe and legal way to wager on professional sporting events," Silver said in an op-ed article published online Thursday. I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated. Gambling has been the scourge of sports at least since eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banished for fixing the 1919 World Series. NFL stars Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were suspended for gambling in 1963, and Pete Rose was given a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 - all in the interest of protecting the integrity of the games. But like other businesses struggling to adapt to the internet age, sports leagues are realizing that rules written for the backroom bookies of a Marlon Brando film don't quite fit when gambling takes place on well-financed sites that come bearing multimillion dollar sponsorship checks. After decades of strictly avoiding any form of gambling, the NFL in 2009 gave teams permission to sign licensing deals with state-sponsored lotteries. More recently, leagues have embraced fantasy sports websites that allow fans to risk real money on what happens during their games - but not on their outcomes. Only Nevada allows betting on the outcome of games; a move to legalize sports betting in New Jersey is being fought by the pro sports leagues. The fantasy sports websites deny that they are in the gambling business, claiming they are less a game of chance like roulette than a game of skill where a player's knowledge gives him an edge - a definition of gambling that would exclude many card games and much of what goes on the golf course, among friends. Leagues are happy to go along with this definition, and it's easy to see why: Not only do fantasy sports keep fans interested, the sponsorship deals - and, in the NBA's case, an ownership stake in FanDuel - bring in cash for ever-thirsty leagues. "Fantasy games have long been considered legal and distinct from sports betting," Sal LaRocca, NBA President of Global Operations and Merchandising said in an email. One-day fantasy is a popular and legal way for fans to further connect with our game. Likewise, when Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman tweeted an endorsement of a one-week, pay $10 to win $5,000 league at FanDuel, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy dismissed the suggestion that it was an endorsement of gambling. "It's fantasy football," he said.