Two gay baseball players made history when they opened up about their sexual preferences in 2013. Instead of the fans turning their back on these professional players, they became the brave heroes, both touched by the reaction of both their families, friends, fans and teammates. It was a few years before that the case about slot machines and baseball became news headlines, and this time it was all about Bob Nutting and Steve Swindell.

At the time Bob Nutting wanted to purchase a resort in western Pennsylvania, which he could use to build a casino on with 500 slot machines. Unfortunately for him, baseball does not permit club owners to operate or own a casino and he had to abandon this plan. He went to great lengths at first, tried to separate ownership of the slot-machine casino and the resort, but the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission rules forbid separate ownership.

Rainbow Flag Fly High at Casino

The casino industry has never been ignorant of the gay community, especially since statistics show that lesbian and gay travellers spend over $64.5 billion yearly in Las Vegas hotels. For many years Vegas hotels host weekly-gay oriented club nights and pool parties and all advertising focussed towards gay and lesbian travellers. It’s when you look at the long history casinos and the gay community has that it becomes clear why the gay baseball players to come out had no acceptance difficulties. According to records, the first gay-tolerant bar was in Atlantic City in 1920.

Baseball, Casinos and Sportsbetting More Connected Than Ever Before

Due to modern technology, baseball, sports betting and casinos are even more connected, and sports fans no longer must travel to place bets on their favourite team since it is all possible via desktop and mobile devices. The biggest hick-up is finding the best online and most trustworthy casino sports betting site. Unless you have already discovered online-casino-canada.ca/cas, an online site that offers a List of Popular Online Casinos and Sportsbooks. The operators feature on the List of Popular Online Casinos and Sportsbooks, offer exceptional bonuses, the best baseball sports betting odds, and have an excellent reputation for fast payouts and fair gaming. Baseball is one of the major sports offered at online casinos and sports betting operators and only a few months ago one bookie reported a wager of over $1million on the Eagles.

A decade ago it was unthinkable that any athlete participating in professional sports would come out to its fans or fellow players. The very first openly gay basketball player was Jason Collins who came out publicly in 2013. After veteran Collins made his status public in spin, Michael Sam, a player for the University of Missouri, told his team he was gay in August 2013. Sam became the first gay player in the history of the Canadian Football League.

In Major League, NFL and NHL there still is no openly gay players, although two publicly gay players are part of the minor leagues since 2015. The first was Sean Conroy who came out publicly in June 2015. The right-handed Sonoma Stompers pitcher did what no other active baseball player did before. Due to his bravery, it took only seven weeks for Brewers, David Denson to become the second player to announce his sexuality publicly on the 15th of August. Denson was the first player affiliated with a major league, which basically invited unavoidable scrutiny. On the contrary, both Denson and Conroy enjoyed full-throated support from the media, their employers and teammates.

Gay Baseball Players Receive Unexpected Support from Teammates

Denson remains touched by the reaction of this teammates especially since none of his fellow players had any negative response. It was the reaction of both his teammates and family that concerned him at first; he shared in an interview. But thankfully when he came out, he only had support. Conroy enjoyed the same positivity even though he expected serious negativity. In the same year around September, a signed lineup card from the game Conroy played was added to the Hall of Fame from the first game he played as an openly gay player.

Positivity & Acceptance Motivates More Players to Come Out

For some players, it is scarier than for other and even with the positive feedback others enjoy it is both complex and difficult to go public. In over 150 years no professional baseball players announced their homosexuality in public. In just two months two players took the brave step and enjoyed universally positivity, which could encourage others to do the same.

Many expected that a whole lot of other players would follow in the footsteps of Conroy and Denson. No players did, which is surprising since over 8,000 men play in minor leagues every year. More than 2,000 in independent leagues. In the end, what players do in their own time is their private business, fans car about their spor teams performances and teammates depend on every members sporting ability, whether they are straight or gay.