NPR: One Bad Barkley Doesn't Spoil All Gaming

One Bad Barkley Doesn't Spoil All Gaming

Former NBA player Charles Barkley arrives at the opening of Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in Las Vegas in December.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

It happens like clockwork. A racehorse gets put down after having been riding-cropped into running so hard it breaks both its ankles, and all the sob sisters out there want to shut down the whole family-fun sport of horse racing.

And every time a cigar-chomping ex-NBA star gets nearly brought up on felony charges because he fails to pay the $400,000 gambling debt he racked up in Vegas over two days, the moral wet blankets start whining about the ills of the professional gaming industry — and please, people, get it right: It's GAMING, not GAMBLING.

I'll be straight with you: I like gaming. I game a lot. And same as with hot wings and adult Internet entertainment, I can't imagine life without the gaming industry. I might add that I once had the opportunity to game with Charles Barkley — that is to say, I had some action going on the green felt at the same time he did — and I can safely say one bad Barkley doesn't spoil gaming for everybody. If I had a nickel for every time I was a little slow paying off a marker ... well, I'd play penny slots and win the money back. And $400,000 to a guy like Barkley? That's pocket change. He's already admitted to losing close to $10 million at the tables, which, if those stories about Bill Bennett are true, barely puts Barkley in that league of pathological gamblers.

Gamers. I mean pathological gamers.

And the whole concept of pathological — uncontrollable, addicted — gaming is little better than legend anyway. Just check out the American Gaming Association Web site. They give you the unvarnished truth about gaming, the way only a gaming industry trade group can. By their reckoning, only a lousy 1 percent of the population can be classified as Level 3 — pathological — gamers. Are we going to let a few Level 3s ruin it for the rest of us?

And, really, how sure can we be that those Level 3s are truly "pathological"? A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2005 found that "Pathological gambling is highly comorbid with substance use, mood, anxiety, and personality disorders, suggesting that treatment for one condition should involve assessments and possible concomitant treatment for comorbid conditions."

Comorbid. They exist at the same time. Need I say more?

So I say to Sir Charles, keep doing what you're doing. And while you're at it, lay a bet for me.

3:11 AM ET | 05-16-2008 | permalink

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Um, is this post ironic?

Sent by Kevin | 8:12 AM ET | 05-18-2008

We loved Sir Charles when we lived in Phoenix, and he would appear on TV and radio and say (more or less), "I'm not a role model. Parents are role models." We still love that memory

Sent by DWM | 10:27 AM ET | 05-18-2008

"Gaming" is the politically-correct euphemism promoted by the gambling industry in a mostly futile attempt to destigmatize or reduce the associations of shame disgrace from a dodgy activity.

400 perfectly healthy racehorses are killed each year in Puerto Rico. Calling it euthanasia or painless killing doesn't remove the stigma from that either (and John, the "killing" is not the "family-fun" part.)

If a double amputee can compete at the highest level of track and field, the U.S. Olympic Trials, then there's no reason a prize-winning racehorse with two broken ankles can not be fitted with prosthetic devices and kept alive, except that it wouldn't be cost-effective for its grubby owners, who've raked in millions off the same animal.

And Charles Barkley is an overprivileged pinhead. Every time he got into a barroom brawl or changed teams we had to listen to the same phony spiel about how he had been "disrespected." He was a disgrace at the Olympics, throwing elbows and accusing African athletes of carrying "spears" under their uniforms. And Clarence Thomas has only put on a hundred pounds.

Sent by Dave | 8:50 AM ET | 05-19-2008

I just checked the websites of Grey Goose, Philip Morris, and the NRA. Turns out the adverse effects of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms are wildly overstated, so maybe there's something to John's argument that GAMBLING addiction isn't as detrimental as the government, public health advocates,psychologists, recovering addicts, and COMMON SENSE would have us believe.

Sent by N. Sampson | 11:56 PM ET | 05-19-2008

Gambling has damaged sports a lot over the years and now that it's so prevalent were going to see more damage. Real fans gave up on Boxing decades ago because of the gambling fixes. Boxing only exists for gambling now, just like Horseracing and dogracing.

Pro basketball had 20 refs involved in the scandal last year, and the Phoenix vs San Antonio series was undoubtably fixed (check out the youtube videos of the specific calls the convicted ref made). The NBA said that the other 20 refs involved didn't cheat on games, it was just their reffing style and interaction with the players that interested the mob. And that's why they were tipped off ahead of time of their reffing schedules. I totally believe that one. The sad thing was that not one of my sports friends were surprised at all. They were just surprised it took this long to catch one of them.

Super bowl XL was fixed beyond a reasonable doubt, and the NFL refused to check out the gambling ties because they said only one call was missed in the game! Of course everybody presumed that it was because they were afraid of what they might uncover, and the massive backlash by fans. The NFL announced afterward that they needed to work on the perception of the fans that the calls were one-sided. I will say this for the NFL, they did make sure the last two Super Bowls were not fixed. I don't know about the NBA this year because I don't know anybody that's a basketball fan that watches the NBA anymore.

I really think it's going to be the death of bigtime sports eventually. I couldn't care less if all these pinheads go broke, but quit messing with sports.

Sent by Greg | 3:09 AM ET | 05-20-2008

I have a lot of sport fanatic friends and since the news broke about barkley, not one of them has mentioned it ONE TIME.

What is concerning, however is your attempt to paint the "gaming" industry as a innocent bystander in this story. For every barkley who can afford (some would wonder) such wasteful pursuits there are millions of others who have bought into the new American dream of hitting the lotto or taking vegas as the only way to get ahead.

Sent by steve s | 1:48 PM ET | 05-20-2008

If you're referring to the "role model" post, not it's not ironic. It's sad. Actually, it's a can of worms. 15 years ago, whether he was paid or not to say those words, Charles Barkley's words could have motivated poor kids of color who do not look beyond sports as a way to get out of the poverty cycle. Talk about a gamble.

Sent by DWM | 5:09 PM ET | 05-20-2008

Your blog entry was very informative. Thanks for your effort. We have started a new site called FaithTube

(http://faithtu.be). It contains religious videos from all around the internet. If you could visit us then it would be great.

Thanks.
Simone.

Sent by Simone | 4:18 AM ET | 07-31-2008

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