Apparently John McCain and his staffers have a tradition of holding a March Madness pool. This is strange because McCain has been a steadfast supporter of keeping sports betting illegal in this country – going as far as trying to ban legal sports betting from Nevada casinos. I think this example shows both the increasingly pervasive nature of March Madness betting in this country and the hypocrisy of our elected officials on the issue of sports betting.

Props to Zeal For Truth, who provides a nice summary:

McCain is a big fan of college basketball (maybe he swayed the NCAA tournament committee to put in Arizona this year) – so much so that it is becoming an annual tradition for the Senator to sponsor a bracket competition on his site (last year’s included campaign gear to the winner). McCain even bets in an office pool with his staff – or at least did last year.

This is all wonderful and good. I would definitely say that sports betting is almost as American as apple pie.

Cue McCain, who declared that sports betting in legal Nevada Casinos “feeds illegal betting on campuses and on the Internet, leads to corruption of college athletes and sets students on the path to becoming problem gamblers.” Naturally of course, McCain has been a huge advocate of banning the practice of betting on college sports.

Anyone who enjoys sports betting and plans on voting in the upcoming election may want to keep in mind McCain’s precarious position on this important issue.