ABSTRACT
Three reasons. (1) The obvious one: its adds to the thrill; watching, or listening to, sports events is exciting in itself and it becomes even more exciting if we have money riding on their outcome. (2) Competition lends itself to gambling; it lacks the randomness of games of chance such as roulette and cards, and invites the bettor to measure his or her own judgment against those of another person or firm. (3) Historically, sports and gambling have been intertwined; the entire development of sports features a coupling with betting. Many sports would not exist at all were it not for gambling and it could be argued that many others would not be so popular if we could not bet on them, whether legally or illegally. In fact, anthropologist Kendall Blanchard argues that to gamble is one of three prime objectives of sports, the others being to compete and to win prizes (1995: 122).
