One Sure Thing -- The Bet Is Illegal

Today we turn our attention to a wholly unanticipated scenario of the Giant-Angel World Series matchup: several politicians, as well as the bishops of the Orange County and San Francisco dioceses, landing in jail.

Sure, it sounded funny when Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly won successive bets from the mayors of New York and Minneapolis and when, on the eve of the World Series, Daly and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown staked their claims: if the Giants win, Daly would wear a fedora with Giants colors; an Angels win and Brown would don a cowboy hat.

Two members of Orange County’s congressional delegation got into the act. U.S. Reps. Christopher Cox and Loretta Sanchez jointly put up Disney tickets against a wine-and-chocolate offer from their San Francisco counterparts, Nancy Pelosi and Tom Lantos. Cox also agreed to sing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” while sporting flowers in his hair and wearing a tie-dyed shirt. His news release noted that by doing so, “Rep. Cox upped the ante ... “ of the original wager. Those words may come back to haunt him.

The gambling bug also bit Orange County Bishop Tod Brown, who referred to himself and San Francisco Archbishop William Levada in a news release as “passionate fans” of their respective teams who had engaged in a “World Series wager.”

Brown agreed to treat Levada to lunch or dinner at Club 33 at Disneyland. Should Levada lose, he’ll entertain Brown at the opera in San Francisco.

I ask Whittier Law College professor I. Nelson Rose, an acknowledged gambling expert, why people do things like that. He says it’s probably human nature and that it goes way, way back.

He then mentions that these local wagers are probably illegal. “Hold on,” Rose says, “let me get the penal code statute.”

He returns with 337a of the state code, which says in part that anyone “who lays, makes, offers or accepts any bet or bets, or wager or wagers, upon the result or purported result of any ... contest, or purported contest, of skill, speed or power of endurance of man or beast, or between men, beasts, or mechanical apparatus” has committed a crime punishable by as much as a year in jail or prison.

If the Giant-Angel best-of-seven series doesn’t pit men in a contest of skill, speed or power of endurance, I don’t know what does.

Rose, who teaches at Whittier’s Costa Mesa branch, doesn’t want to come across like Cotton Mather, but, hey, he didn’t write the law.

I ask Rose (no relation to Pete Rose), what’s wrong with bishops or politicians betting on baseball.

“If the defenders of morality in society, which is government and religion,” he says, “are running games themselves -- or in this case betting -- how can they tell other people, ‘No, you can’t do it, it’s a sin, it’s wrong.’ ” It certainly sends a message that, with these anti-gambling laws, you can ignore them.”

Gambling, Rose says, “is part of our society and probably part of human nature. It’s going to exist, anyway, so it probably should be legalized but made difficult.”

In olden days, gambling probably started as wagers between two people racing and then evolved to include animals and “to groups of people.”

Like Angels and Giants.

Cox and Sanchez pleaded ignorance. “But if it’s me and the bishop,” Sanchez quipped, “I’ll finally have time for confession.”

Betting involves risk and America was settled by risk-takers, Rose says. That probably rubbed off on society’s leaders. “I do believe almost every successful human being in our culture, who made it to the top, probably is a risk-seeker.”

I didn’t ask him if they all have smart lawyers.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons at (714) 966-7821 or the Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.