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They've been taking action for two weeks now in New Jersey Devin Hester Jersey , where basketball great Julius Erving helped kick things off with a $5 bet on the Philadelphia Eagles to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Sports betting is here, and it's not going anywhere soon. States are embracing their newly won right to offer wagers, and fans are responding by lining up at the betting windows to throw a few bucks on their favorite teams.

And, surprisingly enough to some, the major sports leagues have 鈥?so far at least 鈥?somehow managed to survive.

No one has tried to fix anything, as the NFL for years claimed would happen if sports betting was legalized. No one has cried foul over some shenanigans going on in a game.

And, best of all, no greedy sports league has managed to dip its fingers into the pie.

That may change if New York eventually passes a sports betting bill that didn't make the cut with legislators this year. Proposed legislation there calls for a 0.2 percent cut of betting revenue for the sports leagues, which claim they need it to pay for extra expenses associated with legal sports betting.

It's a bad idea, nothing more than a money grab by leagues that for years decried sports betting as immoral and a threat to their games 鈥?until they figured out there might be some money to be made on it.

But if the anecdotal evidence of two weeks of legal betting in a few states is any indication, there's a ton of money to be made.

A report released Wednesday by GamblingCompliance, a Washington-based research firm, predicted sports betting will be legal in 25 to 37 states within five years. Billions of dollars will be wagered, with gross gaming win expected to top $5 billion by 2023 alone.

That translates into total wagering of some $100 billion a year alone, a staggering figure 20 times what was bet legally in Nevada last year.

Bookies will get their cut Washington Redskins Jerseys Womens , and so will the states taxing the winnings. The report predicts New Jersey and Pennsylvania will surpass Nevada in sports betting revenue within five years, with just over $300 million in win each, and New York will likely end up being the biggest sports betting market in the nation once legislation is passed there to legalize it 鈥?especially if it includes online betting.

"Online sports betting in New York is single biggest opportunity we see emerging in next few years," said James Kilsby, managing director of GamblingCompliance.

So far, at least, it appears the sports betting market will be robust. Bettors in New Jersey have already embraced the limited rollout there, and five other states are on track to offer betting by the upcoming NFL season.

Whether the sports leagues end up getting a piece of the action remains to be seen. New Jersey specifically cut the leagues out, not surprising because they fought the state in court for years over efforts to legalize sports betting, and there is no fee in any of the states on the verge of offering bets.

But with the so-called integrity fee floundering, the leagues are moving in another direction. The latest plan involves charging for the use of stats generated in their games because, as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month, "it's ultimately our intellectual property, and we think we should be compensated for it."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said much the same thing at the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas.

"If you're going to allocate for yourself to run a business on our intellectual property and the performance of our athletes and the platform that we put on for our games, we're entitled to be involved in that Ryan McLeod Oilers Jersey ," Bettman said.

Unfortunately for the leagues, that ship has mostly sailed. Nevada built up a respectable 鈥?and profitable 鈥?sports betting business over the years with no help from the leagues, who fought sports betting at every turn and often warned about dire moral consequences should it be legalized outside the state.

For them to now want a cut of the action would be laughable if they weren't so serious about it.

The bottom line is the NBA didn't want anything to do with Las Vegas or legal betting. Neither did Major League Baseball or the NFL, which just a few years ago wouldn't even allow Las Vegas hotels to advertise on the Super Bowl broadcast because it was fearful that would somehow taint the game.

To reward them now would be nearly as foolish as banning sports betting was in the first place.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or ://timdahlberg


As he maneuvered through the NFL draft on Saturday, Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman certainly had his eye on filling team needs.

Trusting his coaches to develop players, Spielman also had a specific focus on athleticism.

Minnesota, after trading out of the third round and holding the second pick in the fourth round, selected Ohio State defensive lineman Jalyn Holmes to start Saturday's third day of the draft. Later, the team added two former basketball players as part of a six-player, final day haul.

"Sticking with the athletic traits we're looking for and relying on this coaching staff to develop a lot of this young talent," Spielman said. "A lot of the traits that they have, you can't teach, you can't coach, but you can sure develop them."

Spielman continued to move around the board on Saturday. The Vikings then made a pair of trades with the New York Jets, adding tight end Tyler Conklin from Central Michigan and the first kicker taken in the draft in Auburn's Daniel Carlson in the fifth round.

Minnesota added guard Colby Gossett from Appalachian State http://www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-josh-allen-jersey , Tulane defensive end Ade Aruna and California linebacker Devante Downs.

Holmes, a 270-pound defensive end at Ohio State, likely will play inside for the Vikings. He ran 4.82 in the 40-yard dash at the combine, sixth among defensive ends.

Conklin and Aruna were both former basketball players.

Conklin left behind a scholarship at Northwood University as a basketball player to walk on to the football team at Central Michigan. Aruna came to the United States from Nigeria to play high school basketball before switching to football prior to his senior season.

Conklin had the second-best mark among tight ends in the vertical jump and 60-yard shuttle at the combine.

Aruna also flashed his traits at the combine. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound end was second among all defensive lineman in the 40-yard dash with a time of 4.60 seconds and had the top vertical jump and broad jump.

"We'll have a hell of an intramural team," Spielman joked. "All these guys are long. All these guys can jump out of the gym. All these guys can run. When you have those traits, to me and to this coaching staff, our philosophy if we can get athletes in like that, it gives you a chance to hit on some guys that can be pretty special."

Spielman referenced the team's selection of defensive end Danielle Hunter in the third round in 2015 after Hunter had 1陆 sacks as a senior. He's developed into a starting end and has 25陆 sacks in three seasons.

Aruna's basketball background even included a matchup with NBA forward Andrew Wiggins where Aruna was responsible for defending the eventual Minnesota Timberwolves player.

"As soon as we got down to the stadium to play that game, my coach told me, 'Hey, I want you to guard Andrew Wiggins. He's going to be your assignment tonight,'" Aruna said. "I told him, 'No problem, if that's how you want it I will get it done Justus Annunen Blackhawks Jersey , just like that.' I gave him one of the lowest scoring games of his high school career, that night."

EXTRA POINTS: Carlson could replace Kai Forbath as Minnesota's kicker after hearing his name selected in the fifth round. Carlson was a three-time finalist for the Lou Groza Award, given to the best kicker in college football, and was a second-team All-American the past two seasons.

Forbath re-signed with the Vikings in March on a one-year contract after an inconsistent season in which he led the NFL with five missed extra-point attempts and hit just 84.2 percent of his field-goal attempts.

In four years at Auburn, Carlson was perfect on 198 extra-point attempts.

"At this next level, extra points are backed up a little so it is going to take that much more focus and hopefully that can continue to keep that streak alive and take pride in making sure I am mentally locked in," Carlson said.

He hit 80.7 percent of his field-goal attempts, including an 87.5 percent mark in 2016 before hitting 23 of 31 (74.2 percent) last season.

Spielman said Carlson and Forbath will compete for the job during the summer.

CURLING FOR PICKS: Minnesota's fourth-round pick was delivered via the St. Paul Curling Club from the U.S. Olympic men's gold medal-winning curling team. The team led by captain John Schuster, a Minnesota native, announced the pick of Holmes.

Holmes was selected 102nd overall, which was the same pick Washington used to get quarterback Kirk Cousins in 2012. In his first chance at free agency, Cousins signed a three-year contract worth $84 million in March.

STILL NEED: Minnesota went for need during the three days of the draft, hitting the most important spots along the lines and at cornerback. Perhaps more work is needed after the Vikings weren't able to come away with an expected immediate starter on the right side of the offensive line.

One spot Minnesota didn't address was safety, where it returns All-Pro Harrison Smith along with starter Andrew Sendejo. The top backups are Anthony Harris and Jayron Kearse.

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