Adam Silver Sees Fans at NBA Games Gambling on Their Phones "All the time"

Adam Silver did a long sit-down interview with Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, and the NBA commissioner continues to run circles around Roger Goodell in terms of candor, sincerity, and sheer likability. The whole conversation is worth watching; a highlight came around the 16:45-mark when Beck asked Silver about how he’d said expanded legalized gambling was an “inevitability,” and the commissioner responded by saying that the current bill in New Jersey violates federal legislation, and that the NBA would like to participate in any regulatory framework:

Silver mentioned the legal gambling overseas and in Las Vegas, and said he saw the prospect not necessarily as a threat, but as a business opportunity:

Beck asked if there might ever come a day where there are betting windows in NBA arenas like there are in Europe or at horse tracks, and Silver replied that he witnessed that at Wembley years back, but that everything’s increasingly taking place online. In fact, there are already a lot of fans placing prop bets on offshore sites from inside NBA arenas.

It’ll be fascinating to see how long it takes before online sports betting is completely above ground.

[H/T @DavidPurdum]