John Calipari shows support for legalizing sports gambling in Kentucky

One of the most powerful men in Kentucky has thrown his voice into the sports gambling conversation.

“There’s all this money out here,” Calipari said at the NBA combine Friday, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. “The gambling is not going away. It’s there. Maybe everybody sharing it because it’s going to happen anyway.”

After the United States Supreme Court’s decision that banning sports gambling was unconstitutional, the decision to legalize it now sits with the states, and Kentucky’s decision is one of the more intriguing.

The commonwealth has always been crazy about gambling on horse racing, and the move to legalizing sports gambling could lead to a huge influx of money for the state. But state lawmakers seem opposed to the idea.

Calipari makes a good point: people are going to bet on sports whether it’s legal or not. The state could get its cut if it legalized it.

“If anybody is going to be doing anything to get in the middle of the integrity of any of this game they’re going to do it whether it’s legal gambling or illegal,” Calipari said. “I don’t think that matters. That’s the way I see it, but I haven’t spent much time (thinking about the issue). I just heard about it.”

You can read Jon Hale’s story from the Courier Journal here, which includes quotes from NCAA President Mark Emmert.