Pittsburgh Pirates owner and Chairman Bob Nutting wasn’t listed on the original schedule for the National Council of Legislators from Gambling States (NCLGS) Summer Meeting, but on Thursday, he not only gave a short keynote address but showed up three hours early and sat through four presentations.
“The journey here today has been fascinating,” Nutting said at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, “just to see the complexity of the issues that you face.”
Nutting said he related to the issues because running a baseball team is not unlike being a legislator. Both, he said, need to avoid “shorter term, quick, easier decisions.”
“I mentioned all those things – stewardship, responsibility, thinking about internal commitment to the community for a reason, because I know that every one of you in this room, every one of you in this group, feels the same responsibility,” Nutting said. “You’re all stewards of limited resources, stretched resources, you all have to do the right thing, even when it’s not popular.
“You need to make your community stronger. It’s an easy path, to criticize or tear down, which some politics has become. You’ve heard none of that this morning. And your role as legislators, as leaders and builders of your communities, you’ve already committed yourself to that important role. You know what it is to make long- and short-term decisions. On occasion, you don’t make every single person happy, either.”
Nutting also referenced the role of gaming legislators in fostering integrity in sports betting. Tucupita Marcano was banned for life from baseball when it was determined he’d bet on baseball while with the Pirates in 2022.
Nutting called Marcano’s error the “one rule that baseball players can’t ever break.”
“The integrity of the game is the most important thing to us, the Pirates and the rest of baseball,” Nutting said. “And really, the things that MLB partners within the gaming industry, the legal framework we all have created, that’s how we were able to find our own player’s baseball bets. The transparency, the legal framework, is critically important to us in protecting our league.”
Rege Behe is lead contributor to CDC Gaming. He can be reached at rbehe@cdcgaming.com. Please follow @RegeBehe_exPTR on Twitter.
