I’m going to make this as clear as I possibly can. Never once, have I walked out of the Thomas and Mack Center, Sam Boyd Stadium, MGM Grand Garden Arena, or Cashman Field, and over heard a patron speaking about how disappointed they were that the home team won but didn’t cover the point spread.

NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, made the comment that he didn’t want an arena filled with gamblers who would rather win their bet than getting two points in the standings.  These comments scream that the league hasn’t taken the time to really understand the people who have purchased 14,000 season tickets to a team that doesn’t exist.  Bettman’s vision of 1,000’s standing with betting tickets in their fist and venom in their eyes is about as accurate as thinking that Canadian NHL arena’s are attended by people who arrive by dog sled.  They don’t, right?

The truth is, growing up in Upstate New York as a youth there was never a shortage of parlay sheets.  We know them in Las Vegas as parlay cards.  I could get a couple off my Dad who said he got them from the mailman. I could get them from friends in high school who lived way across town but somehow had the same mail carrier.  Point is, gambling was etched in the culture of high school students in a state where sports wagering is completely illegal.  So when Gary Bettman points a finger filled with assumption and conjecture as to the potential personality of a Las Vegas crowd perhaps he may want to focus on our postal service in current NHL cities.