Bradley Beal's altercation with disgruntled bettor a sign of things to come in gambling-addled sports world

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

To normal high school track athletes, placing second in the 100-metre final at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championship might feel like winning Olympic silver. Sprint talent runs deep in Toronto and the regions that surround it — Peel to the west, Durham to the east and York to the north. 

Surviving that competition and landing on a podium — regardless of gender or age group — means you can fly. Point blank, period. Second place is absolutely worth celebrating.

Unless you're Tyrone Halstead, a sweetheart of a kid and supersonic sprinter I used to coach at The Woodlands School in Mississauga, where he set a school record in the 100. By the time he finished his U Sports career, he was one of the most decorated track athletes in York University's history, and in high school he hardly ever lost.

Except that one time, in the 2006 OFSAA final, senior boys 100 metres. He started poorly, closed well, finished second, and fumed afterward. 

But the middle-aged guy who got in Tyrone's face outside Etobicoke Centennial Stadium might have been even angrier. He claimed he had lost $300 betting on that race, and screamed at a 17-year-old as if the kid owed him money. Punctuated the tirade with a shove.

I didn't witness any of this. Tyrone told me about it later. If I had seen that man put his hands on a kid I coached, I'd be writing this column about my first mugshot.

It's not that I condone violence. I just don't tolerate fools. If you can find a better word for a grown man who blows $300 betting on high school track, please let me know.

But now, five years after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for widespread legal sports gambling, and a week after this blowup between Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards and a disgruntled bettor, that post-track-meet meltdown feels different. 

Back then it was just a temper tantrum from a man who should have known and acted better. Now it looks like a preview of our gambling-addled sports future — where betting surrounds us, and bettors think a lost wager buys them the right to cross bright red lines.

Before we continue… Yes, I understand that athlete's salaries increase in accordance with revenue, and that gambling outfits and the diabetes/weight-loss drug Ozempic have emerged as two important sources of sponsorship dollars. They're the rising tide floating everybody's advertising boat this season.

But if you're asking who gets my empathy between Beal, who has spent a lifetime building NBA-level skill, and the unnamed spectator, hoping to ride some luck — and Beal's hard work — to an easy payday, I'm siding with Beal.

To recap:

The visiting Wizards lost 122-112 to the Orlando Magic last week. Afterward, Beal, who put up 16 points and seven rebounds, was walking from the court to the locker room when a furious fan greeted him with an R-rated, betting-related tirade.