June 12, 2018

David Cloutier, associate professor moral theology, was quoted in a National Catholic Register story about legalized sports betting.

... The court’s decision could have major repercussions for not only the integrity of athletics at the college and professional levels, but could have serious consequences for society, with more people falling into gambling addiction, Catholic ethicists and public-policy advocates warn.

“What we’re doing is opening up a can of worms over a pandora’s box,” said David Cloutier, a moral theology professor at The Catholic University of America.

Cloutier, the author of The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, told the Register that expanded legal sports gambling will become “a huge business” with major incentives for the manipulation of athletic contests.

“I don’t honestly know if professional or college sports can ever be the same when there is widespread legalized betting, as opposed to the March Madness pools that we all do with our friends,” Cloutier said. ...

Continue reading in the Register.