Someone at South Carolina’s
The State REALLY likes anti-sports betting clichés. Proceed with caution.
The theme of the story surrounds an accused murder (strategically pictured in cuffs at the top) that reportedly served as a local bookie. The author wants you to believe the two are in some way linked because everyone knows local bookies are extremely prone to committing capital offences.
Next, we have this quote which makes absolutely no sense (or was transcribed completely wrong).
“Even in small towns, there’s usually someone who makes sports book,” said Frank Quinn, a Columbia area psychotherapist who’s spent more than 30 years treating various addictions, including gambling, in South Carolina.
Now we have a law enforcement officer admitting that they simply have bigger fish to fry than to go after local bookies. He and some of his fellow co-workers – with over 30 years of experience – couldn't even remember making a single sports betting related arrest.
“When you put this (sports bookies) up against murder, rape and those kinds of crimes, you really don’t have a lot of resources left over to devote to it,” said Robert Stewart, who headed the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for 20 years.
And finally, we bring in another "expert" who likens sports betting to a "gateway drug" that young people will ultimately get "hooked" on.
“Sports betting is known as a gateway drug in getting young people hooked into gambling,” said John Kindt, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus and a nationally known gambling expert.
Awful.
