[dalmations202]

Originally Posted by bobatundi

The players are paid so well because the league makes a lot of money and they've collectively negotiated that a percentage of that revenue goes to players. The league makes that money through ticket sales, TV contracts, merchandise sales, etc. They're not paying players millions of dollars a year so they won't tank games, that's absurd.

They are paid so well because they are big business and massive amounts of $$$$$ change hands.

Tanking games is just one of the possibilities that a player could do. If you pay well enough, then people don't talk. If you pay well enough, then people do lots of things. $$$$ still controls the world.

Think a player wouldn't bet on games, and tank games if he thought he could get a few more $$$ out of it, especially in places like college where they are supposedly not payed and don't have the big contracts.

Players aren't as stupid as most people make them out to be. They don't bite the hand that feeds them. Why do you think you hear so much about college athletes? It is much more obvious when a player without a job drives up in a $100,000 vehicle that something is amiss. When a paid professional does this, we don't think anything of it because they make millions anyway.

Take away gambling from sports, and you take away M$ of dollars from the revenue stream -- not that you could stop it anyway.