I think even Captain Renault would have a reaction to this story.
… But the exchange of money in the stands was the small stuff, OTL found — sometimes the games had tens of thousands of dollars bet on them, and players were often paid for making big plays.
Former players and coaches say the gambling and paying of players and their parents has gone on for years, yet some league and law enforcement officials told ESPN they were not aware of the extent of the problems until “Outside the Lines” conducted interviews and showed the officials its undercover video. One man seen on video exchanging money in a group at the league’s super bowl is a longtime coach in the league and city recreation leader.
Man, what a cesspool.
Two things: first, this is how entitlement attitudes are born. Second, recruiting South Florida’s got to feel like stepping through a mine field sometimes.
Get The Picture 
Surprised ESPN’s just getting to this. I know they did a story on the strength of youth football in South Florida and former players now in college or pros were chuckling about the gambling going on in the stands while they played Pop Warner.
I don’t know if the producer just wrote that off as idle boasting, or it just took that long to get it documented. But I don’t think this is a new development.
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I realize that there’s no direct link, but I can’t help thinking that Pete Rose’s Cooperstown chances just took another hit. Think of the children.
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I’m not surprised. Sports is the only thing this South Florida demographic believes will get them ahead in life. It’s either get ahead via sports or drugs, education be damned. And if you get a few women pregnant before you turn 18 then it’s ok since it’s just part of the “culture”, aka Will Hill.
It’s a shame b/c the kids are the victims of all this.
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Will Hill is from NJ.
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Will Hill from Florida? No.
Will Hill as a pretty good example of the devastating self defeating culture present in many of our communities today? Yes.
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Will Hill is a first class idiot, is more like it. Whoring his way through College thinking he was the greatest safety since Ronnie Lott.
I bet that not drafted thing, woke his ass up big time, a little late though.
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Why would betting on Broward County little league football be surprising?
After all, in Broward, informal sports betting competes with innumerable and completely legal jai-ali frontons, horse tracks, dog tracks, bingo halls, Seminole casinos, and the ubiquitious Florida Lottery outlets at every gas station, supermarket, and convenience store.
In such an environment, who can argue that a little sports betting is mala in se?
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Who can argue that a little sports betting is mala in se?
I can. There is a distinct line that should be drawn between adults secretly and privately engaging in some senseless betting on little league sports and them very publicly gambling at the games and corrupting susceptible kids by paying them based on their on the field performance.
I honestly don’t care about 2 drug dealers sitting in some back alley somewhere betting on which pee-wee football team is going to win tonight. I do have a pretty big problem with these guys sitting at the game, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, cursing loudly, openly changing money, and paying these kids they’ve assembled into teams for their own profit.
I don’t live far from a casino and there is state-funded lottery vendors on every corner here as well, but the behaviors above would NOT be tolerated where I live.
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Legal gambling in Broward is very visable and much socially accepted (even embraced) by Broward’s citizenry. Broward cops wink at petty sports betting because legal gambling is right around the corner in Broward. If there’s no harm in gambling, what’s the harm in a few sports bets?
Broward cops first winked at the betting, then they started winking as well at “guys sitting at the game, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, cursing loudly, openly changing money, and paying” kids to throw games.
Broward is where it finds itself, in part, because it first started embracing legalized gambling in a big way.
I live in an adjacent county. We have our own Seminole casino, a couple of bingo halls, and plentiful Florida Lottery outlets. But legal gambling is only tolerated here, not accepted like it is in Broward. Gambling’s more discrete, more out-of-the-way, and much, much less in-your-face in my county than in Broward.
None of the stuff you see out of Broward would remotely be tolerated here. It shouldn’t be tolerated in Broward either. But Broward’s community standards are a lot different from those here.
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Nothing really surprises me anymore, though this did come close.
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Because it’s Broward County, it’s far less surprising.
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I heard this story years ago. Chris Collingsworth was in the championship heat for the Fla HS 100 meter title. His little brother saw a fly dude in a big pimp hat taking bets on the outcome. The kid told to bookie “bet on the white guy!” The black dude said, “white dude in the hundred? You gotta be putting me on!” The kid said, “no, I know him, he’s my brother and he’s super fast. He will be a WR at UF next year.” After the race the bookie walked up and handed the 13 year old 250 bucks and said, “thanks little brother.” That was one happy kid untill her showed his parents the money, they made him chase the bookie down and give the money back. Little League is taking it too far. I hope none of the baseball nuts in Lee Co. hear about this.
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Hadn’t heard that but did hear that Collingsworth was so fast they named his school in Titusville after him: Astronaut High School
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Would I be considered a racist if I pointed out the obvious? And why so? No amount of tax dollars for new schools will remedy this culture. Face it, left unattended Brevard county would be a 3rd world country. Two more generations and you will have an American version of Darfor.
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