In this battle of wills between the state of Delaware and the NFL, I'm taking the First State and laying the points. Meanwhile, what's the over-under on the number of lawyers who make a buck from the whole ridiculous exercise?

History tells us two things will happen here. Delaware will get sports betting, and it will not be anything like the fiscal magic wand its proponents are promising.

In the interim, the NFL and the NCAA will put on a show of fighting the moral decline represented by the proliferation of legal gambling - even as both institutions reap enormous indirect benefits from deeply entrenched illegal gambling on pro football and big-time college basketball and football.

You fill out your weekly pool, you keep track of the games, your interest in the NFL and college football is higher, and TV ratings, Web hits, and other measuring sticks enrich the NFL and NCAA. They are deeply troubled by this, of course.

Every March, you tune into the selection show for the NCAA tournament so you can fill out brackets, then you follow the games and keep track of your chances for winning some dough. The NCAA is deeply disappointed while cashing checks from the networks.

One suspects the real source of anger for the NFL and NCAA is their inability to profit directly from the enormous amount of money being wagered on their products. All this cash is changing hands and they can't get a cut, not without admitting they've been raging hypocrites on the subject of sports betting for decades.

During an especially revealing segment in a recent Wall Street Journal panel discussion involving the commissioners of the four major U.S. team-sports leagues, the NBA's David Stern summed it all up. In the '60s, he was part of a group of lawyers that argued fervently against allowing sports betting anywhere in the United States.

Now?

"It's changed," Stern said. "Gambling is the American way. Some 40-some-odd states have lotteries. Those that may or may not, they've authorized reservation gambling. Now it's the slots at racetracks, and more is coming."

There are two separate issues here.

First, there is the futility of legislating human nature. As long as there have been people, there have been vices. The first ape out of the tree probably jumped down to win a bet. Then he took his winnings, bought a drink, and went out looking for an attractive female ape to lie to.

Second is the desperation that leads state governments to boost revenues by exploiting one of those vices. Gambling revenue is a quick-fix alternative to sound fiscal policy and economic innovation. Delaware Gov. Jack Markell just took office in January. He can't be blamed for the enormous budget deficit he inherited or for looking for ways to remedy the situation.

Delaware is the only state on the East Coast exempt from the 1992 federal law that made all sports gambling illegal. So Markell has a tool for creating revenue that Ed Rendell and other governors in the region simply don't have.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has objected directly to Markell, as well as by lobbying legislators and filing briefs with the state Supreme Court. The NCAA has threatened to prevent Delaware's colleges from hosting championship events.

Their surface argument makes sense. Any gambling based on the outcome of events creates a temptation to sway those events. The NFL and NCAA rely on the belief that their games are honest and decided by fair competition. So both maintain an anti-gambling posture.

But the reality is, as Stern said, "gambling is the American way." People are already gambling on the NFL, and the league already benefits from that. The same with the NCAA. And states already run lotteries and license casinos. One state, Nevada, already has legalized sports betting.

If anything, the legal obstacles to sports gambling serve mostly to give Las Vegas a monopoly - which is about as un-American an idea as you can imagine.

Ultimately, there will be no more temptation to fix games if Delaware has sports betting than there already is. If there's enough action to warrant the alleged point-shaving operation at the University of Toledo, sports betting is already too widespread to contain. One might as well try to blot Delaware Bay with paper towels.

Goodell and the NCAA must make their public show of disapproval, but ultimately, they have no moral, ethical, or legal ground to stand on. You can't be too offended by someone making a buck from sports betting when you already do so yourself.

Does that make sports betting a good thing for Delaware? Maybe for a while. It will generate some revenue and provide some opportunity for related development. But will it provide lasting solutions to deeply entrenched fiscal problems?

The odds against that are long indeed.

Contact columnist Phil Sheridan at 215-854-2844 or psheridan@phillynews.com.

Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/philsheridan.