Last week I wrote about the fact that sports bettors were finding great value in the Varsity Cup rugby and this past Monday was no exception with the Pukke being correctly identified on the Goodforthegame forum as good things to take advantage of the 20 point start they were given over the Maties by the bookmakers.

Leading poster (RuggaBugga) justified the selection with some relevant facts and convinced that we were onto a good thing I shared the news and suggested bets with my mailing list.

That night I opened my inbox to an interesting mail from Marc Ashton a business and sports blogger who had written about my e-mail on one of his sites.

Essentially he was suggesting that betting on the Varsity Cup did not sit well with him and that for some reason he felt that this tournament should remain pure and be free from the influence of sports betting.

He also mentioned the flip side of having betting on the games which is of course increased interest and often sponsorship.

Now I am not in agreement with Marc as I feel that Varsity students being of legal gambling age should be aware of the pitfalls associated with gambling and manage it accordingly and I love having a Monday night bet on this tournament. His post did get me thinking about where I would draw the line though and I can certainly see where he is coming from.

Would I for example have a bet on a rugby match between two high schools at Craven Week? Truth be told if the match was priced up I would be sorely tempted but given the majority of players would be under the legal gambling age of 18 it is at this point that my conscience would have me leaning towards Marc’s point of view and I have to admit that I feel it would be morally wrong to bet or encourage betting at this level.

I love my sport punting but like alcohol it is open to abuse and in some cases can be addictive and I appreciate that there are some people who could run into serious problems with it. Exposing youngsters to it before they are considered adults is an unnecessary risk and this is where I would draw my line. Where would you draw yours?

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 18^th of March 2010.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet.

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it