Shoeless Joe Jackson, banned from baseball since 1920 because of his role in the Black Sox gambling scandal, died a little more than two years before I was born.

The reason for his banishment – gambling – lives gloriously in the 21st century in every ballpark in the major leagues.

In fact, in this country, states that don’t allow gambling of any kind in 2024 are almost as rare (Hawaii and Utah – one I understand, one I don’t) as states that allowed gambling other than horse racing in 1954 (Nevada and Maryland).

Gambling, like other vices, was a tool of the devil to the religious types that held sway in much of the 20th century. People in cities, on the other hand, weren’t quite as puritanical – putting up their money on everything from church raffles to the final three numbers of the race track take that day (a.k.a. Numbers).

Las Vegas set the tone for the rise of gambling, becoming a mecca for players, particularly after World War II. Casinos sprang up along The Strip, in the center of the small city and throughout Nevada. And it was in Las Vegas and Reno that you could bet on sporting events around the world.

The only thing you couldn’t put your money on – and still can’t in Nevada – is a state lottery. The commonwealth of Puerto Rico had the only one in the United States in 1954; the first state to get one was New Hampshire, in 1964. You filled your name and address on a slip of paper, gave the merchant $1, and there was a chance you could win as much as $100,000!

Other states saw how New Hampshire’s lottery took off and decided they needed one, too. The games varied. The most common was a number draw, known to most as a lotto. But there were also scratch-off games – instant gratification for someone in a wagering mood.

The lotto games expanded into two multi-state bonanzas: Powerball and Mega Millions. Jackpots reached as high as $2 billion.

As for casinos, Las Vegas’ success didn’t go unnoticed. In 1977, casinos opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Throughout the 1980s, Native American tribes began seeing betting parlors as a way to raise funds to improve services and to provide employment for their people.

Then states and corporations just straight out built casinos. The only states without casinos of any kind are Hawaii and Utah (again) as well as South Carolina.

But the big shocker to people in 1954 would be the proliferation of sports betting and its embrace by the major competitive sports.

The “throwing” of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox made baseball and – as they became popular – football, basketball and hockey almost evangelical about the sin of gambling. If you look at pictures of the scoreboards in ballparks and arenas of the 1950s and 1960s, you see the words “NO BETTING ALLOWED” a lot.

In 1989, Major League Baseball banned Pete Rose, the all-time leader in base hits, after it was found he bet on his own team when he managed the Cincinnati Reds.

But the fact is that sports betting was like marijuana smoking – it might have been against the law, but a lot of people did it anyway. Newspapers published the point spread for NFL games and there were people – sometimes criminal gangs – who made a fortune every Sunday.

Another form that blossomed was fantasy sports. People would draft teams of players in a sport, compile their statistics and then pay out according to who did best overall.

The surge in legalized sports betting began in the last decade following a Supreme Court ruling that threw out a law barring it for sports other than horse racing, dog racing and jai alai – three sports that virtually died when people could bet on the major sports.

At the same time, online betting blossomed. You could now bet on an app with the new colossi of sports gambling: Draft Kings, Fan Duel, MGM.

And the major sports adhered to the old saying “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” 

Which is why baseball broadcasts begin with the bets of the day. Or ads for sports betting show up on stadium walls and scoreboards. Or why Las Vegas already has major sports teams and is in line to get a baseball team – the Athletics – in three years.

What people in 1954 – three years removed from a point-shaving scandal that almost destroyed college basketball before it could grow – would ask is this: How do you protect the integrity of a sport if gambling is condoned?

I wouldn’t want to wager on the outcome.