by Teddy Covers, senior handicapper at www.sportsmemo.com

Today is different from most days. I get numerous chances each week to make my case for a legalized, regulated sports betting environment on the radio, with my daily appearances on the Sportsmemo radio show and on a half dozen other radio stations around the country where I do a guest spot each week. But today, I've received a relatively rare special opportunity. I'm taking my case to national TV, with an appearance scheduled for CNBC this afternoon.

I'll be debating longtime anti-gaming activist Arnie Wexler on the segment, hosted by Melissa Francis, scheduled to air between 1:40 and 2:00 PM here on the West Coast; 4:40-5:00 PM on the East Coast. The story is about March Madness and office pools. More specifically, the questions that I expect to be asked revolve around office pools and gambling addiction. I'll make the case that office pools do NOT fuel gambling addiction in any way shape or form.

I have three basic points to make. First, while I'm sure that Wexler will bring up his dubious 'studies' that show gambling addition tearing apart the very fabric of American society, I plan to challenge his numbers. I plan to argue strongly against the case that small time $5 bettors around the country are being surreptitiously lured into a lifetime of gambling addiction because they played in their office bracket pool. Anecdotal evidence isn't going to fly here, and the hard numbers don't show any connection between office pools and gambling addiction.

Secondly, I'm going to make the case that office pools in particular and sports betting in general are no different from other dynamic betting marketplaces. White collar executives like to bet on the stock market. The futures markets on Wall Street are very similar to the betting markets here in Las Vegas and offshore. My goal here is to position sports betting as a legitimate market trading activity, not the compulsive habit of degenerate gamblers.

Last, but not least, I'm going to make the case that the government can't legislate human behavior. Adults like to gamble, not just in this country, but all around the world. As humans, we've been gambling since Old Testament times. The Puritans had gambling games in Colonial New England, and the less pious early immigrants down South gambled even more. The government is not against gambling per se - look at the carve outs for state lotteries with their impossible odds, and for horse racing with their powerful lobby. Turning ordinary citizens into criminals is not what the government should be doing.

Yes, there are compulsive gamblers out there, people who genuinely shouldn't be betting on anything thanks to a serious addiction problem. But there is only a tiny percentage of those compulsive gamblers who got their feet wet in the betting world via office pools. If we save one person from their own addiction while turning 1000 others into criminals or outcasts because of their inclusion in an office pool, it's not a trade that I'm willing to make.

Arnie Wexler is a crafty fellow, on the anti-gaming activist trail for nearly four decades. (You can read Wexler's story RIGHT HERE). I'll do my best to present the pro-gaming side of the argument for a national audience this afternoon.

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