Cincinnati ? Pete Rose sees no reason to quit gambling.

In his latest autobiography and accompanying interviews this week, baseball’s hits king says he’s still wagering at race tracks, but insists that his gambling isn’t a problem and shouldn’t be a concern.

Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said Friday there was no way that commissioner Bud Selig could reinstate Rose if he was still placing bets.

“I think that would be a suicidal step for baseball,” Vincent said. “I think it would be critically important to make sure from someone professional that he would be able to control his impulses. I think it’s unlikely Bud will ever reinstate him to manage.”

Rose ended 14 years of denials and confessed in “My Prison Without Bars” that he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while he was their manager. He acknowledged that he let his gambling get out of hand.

An expert doubts that Rose has cured himself.

“It certainly can happen,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “It’s probably a little more prevalent than the Immaculate Conception, but not a lot.”

Barbara Pinzka, who was Rose’s adviser and spokeswoman in 1989, was stunned to see Rose petting a race horse and talking about his visits to the track in a nationally televised interview the previous night.

“Seeing those pictures of him with the horse and having him say he’s still betting at the track and that was OK, that just cemented the door against him getting back in baseball,” Pinzka said. “He clearly doesn’t understand that he has a problem.”

Betting at the track is still important for Rose. In an interview with the Associated Press, he was asked whether he’s willing to stay away from tracks and casinos if baseball made it a condition for reinstatement.

“I would do anything they say, but they have to understand — I’m not telling them what to do — but they also have to understand one of my means of entertainment is periodically going to the races,” Rose said.

Associates urged him over the years to stop gambling completely to improve his chances of reinstatement, but he resisted. In the autobiography, Rose said, “I still enjoy gambling at the race track, which has always been my favorite pastime.”

After Rose accepted the lifetime ban in 1989, his lawyer ordered him to get treatment. Rose met a few times with Dr. James Hillard, currently chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati.

“Pete and I have concluded that he does, in fact, suffer from a clinically significant gambling disorder,” Hillard said, in a statement released by Rose’s advisers at the time. “He has concluded that he is powerless before gambling, that he will begin an ongoing treatment program and that he can never gamble on anything again.”

Pinzka said she and others worked for Rose on the condition that he continued seeing a psychiatrist. He also went to several Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

After Rose completed his jail sentence for tax crimes in 1991, he talked about how he had little in common with other gamblers and regretted saying he had a problem. Hillard’s diagnosis isn’t mentioned in the autobiography, and his name is misspelled throughout.

Hillard declined to comment, citing doctor-patient confidentiality.

Rose balked at apologizing to those whom he has attacked over the years for saying he bet on baseball. Asked on “Good Morning America” whether he owed an apology to Vincent and baseball investigator John Dowd, Rose said emphatically that he did not.