Amidst all of the ongoing controversy surrounding online gambling, the Boston Red Sox have entered into a contractual agreement with a Gibraltar-based company that runs Partypoker.com, one of the world’s top offshore Internet casinos. In addition to Partypoker.com, the Gibraltar-based company also operates a “just for fun” poker Web site, Partypoker.net, and this site is a major Red Sox advertiser. Partypoker.net also was a primary sponsor of Red Sox spring training and is currently sponsoring a poker tournament between Red Sox and Yankee fans. The tournament will be aired on the Sox-owned NESN TV network. Of course, to keep it legal, the Partypoker.net site does not allow visitors to place wagers using real money. It does, however, effectively promote online poker playing just by offering the “for-fun” site. Partypoker.net is thought of as “the world’s largest poker school”.

Critics of the agreement between the Boston Red Sox and the Partypoker company say that it is in poor taste because people admire the Red Sox business entity and by associating the Red Sox name with Internet gambling, it legitimizes an industry that is harmful to the Bay State. “To have an entity such as the Red Sox enter into a contractual agreement with an Internet gambling company is troubling and raises eyebrows,” said Carey Theil, a board member of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion (NCAGE). “It is something they shouldn’t be doing”.

Rep. David Flynn (D-Bridgewater) agrees and is drafting a bill that would stop Bay state gamblers from taking their gambling hobby online. Flynn contends that online gambling siphons tax dollars, is unregulated and hurts the state’s legal gaming industry. Commenting further on the Red Sox decision to hook up with online gambling industry, Flynn said that he was disappointed in what they are doing. “We’re trying to save jobs and save an industry and here we have a business we all admire and what they’re doing has fueled the fire”, Flynn added.

Tom Grey, a spokesman for NCAGE, also thinks that gambling and professional sports shouldn’t mix. “You’ve got Pete Rose. Sports have always tried to keep its distance from gambling. But here with the Red Sox, it’s just a money maker”.

There have been government attempts at the federal level to prevent people from going online to gamble, such as efforts to block credit card companies from doing business with online companies and attempts to prosecute operators of online casinos using the 1960s Wire Act, but results have done little to stem the growing popularity of Internet gambling. Also, many states, such as the Bay State, don’t have state laws that formally prohibit online gambling.