Has been a huge mistake. I honestly don’t know how the people shilling for sports betting in the media can live with themselves.
Legalized sports betting
- Thread starter Obliviax
- Start date
You should read the research linked. Your post is 180 degrees to their research findings
Their research indicates there's no choice involved?
Who's making anyone gamble?
The biggest gamblers in my organization are those that make the least. They always have a hot tip or listen to podcasts on the subject. It is unfortunate.
Take drugs. Smoke dupe, smoke cigarettes, vape, watch porn, over drunk, hey, it’s all just a choice right? Fine, you pay the penalty for homeless and bankruptcies
Right. But ‘ unfortunate’ isn’t the right word. In fact, it was predictable.
No one should pay for them--they made their choice
And no that comment from me shouldn't come as a surprise--people make choices which have consequences--if you can't control your drinking, smoking, gambling, etc then you deal with the consequences. Not my problem. Your problem.
"Smoke dupe" and "over drunk"? You might be imbibing a bit too much yourself.
As always, there's a weighing of considerations of personal rights and freedoms v. societal impacts that's too involved and deep to tackle on a sports message board.
However it's extremely hard to justify the suppression of sports gambling when governmental units are actually running, and profiting greatly and directly from, games of chance.
Ok. Don’t come looking for additional tax revenue because people are homeless.
The amount of 18 year old high school kids who I hear talking about betting is unreal. Kids using lunch money to bets a five leg parlay
This is true, however it is perhaps more of a commentary on the moral and societal implications of the seemingly uninhibited growth of sports betting and the constant advertising on radio and TV. It is made to appear as a part of the enjoyment of sports when many on this site are aware of individuals and families whose lives were ruined by gambling. Now what is slowly bubbling to the surface are investigations of college athletes participating. For some, the NIL $ opens ups the temptation.
Well...the gameification of it has been horrendous. You can't got five minutes watching a sports show or listening to a sports radio show without an ad for gambling. And the downloadable apps make gambling something you can do impulsively. And that is where you get the gambler hooked...if they win, they think they can win again. Easy money! If they lose, they think they need to win back to get even.
I am all for personal freedoms but not when a) it ruins people and b) you eventually ask me to pay for it. And I will...with increased crime, anger, and bankruptcies. Worse, it was a self-inflicted wound. There was no reason to legalize it. They really could have legalized sports books but made it illegal to bet via downloadable app or via the internet. It would require a voice call or an in-person bet. That way, you can't easily impulse bet on if the next play gains 3.5+ yards or if the next pitch is fouled off.
Agree. We are of the same mindset. Another concern is unscrupulous lawyer lobbyists asking congress to get gambling added to the list of "disabiliities" for collection of Sociall Security "benefits".
Yeah. I think we should add to that list that wanting to bang hot chicks is a disability.
Its a free country. If they legalize the lottery in every state then sports gambling should be legal in every state.
And in a free country smart people aren’t penalized for the choices of stupid people.
Umm oh yes it is. Smart people pay for the decisions of dumb people every day. The only thing that I dont like about Sports betting is that they can block winners. There needs to be some upside since these bettors are taking risks.
Started a thread on this last winter. Kids on cell phones all day gambling. Even sports writers in newspapers writing about how much fun gambling is. Saying it makes even boring games fun when you place side bets.
Postulated that writers are pushing all these side bets because it keeps people reading their articles trying to find info on how to bet. This feeds the click count….. draws advertisers……pays the writers.
They are all in on the scam…..znd don’t give a 💩 about the victims.
My kids (14 and 16) talk about how kids in their class are betting on sports. These other kids' parents must give them access to the app and some kind of bankroll to do it.
Ya they have to have hacked into some accounts or parents are giving them access.
Very interesting read, Obli. Thanks for posting it.
Personally, as a guy who's been betting football games on and off since college days, back when it was technically illegal but winked at, I have conflicted feelings about the issue.
I never bet more than I can afford to lose, strictly "walking-around money," and if I end up breaking even or winning a few bucks over the course of a season, I'm happy.
That said, guys who are knowledgeable about the game and intelligent bettors -- that's a minority by the way -- can make decent money. A man I knew growing up, our hometown pharmacist, made big bucks betting football.
The difference now is the Internet and the mindboggling variety of bets, most of them low-percentage, plus the endless options for in-game wagers. This is an invitation to abuse by people who lack maturity, knowledge, and discipline...and are looking to make easy money. The bookies make their living on guys like that.
Yet the same can be said about a lot of things that are entirely legal and accepted. Take alcohol for example. We know it's widely abused, and this ends destructively for large numbers of people, yet nobody argues that the sale of alcohol should be prohibited.
It seems like the same principle applies to sports betting. We know that some people of lesser character and intelligence may harm themselves but is this a reason to outlaw the entire industry for everyone? And if so, where is the line drawn? Why does alcohol make the cut...for just one example?
That's why I don't see this as a simple or obvious issue. Like so many things in life, there are a bunch of trade-offs...and no way to keep people entirely safe from themselves.
These kids aren't hacking in to anything ... it's parents giving them access. Just your typical sports parent at work.
Yes, I'm sure you were one of the responsible illegal gamblers ... no doubt.
How to tell someone has a problem? They volunteer how they don't have a problem.
Such a silly and simplistic characterization. Even in an anarchistic (stretching the bounds of personal freedom) society, the "smart" "successful" folks still pay for the poor decisions of others in some way and to some extent, directly or indirectly. It's just a question of how much and how codified this payment is.
I've got a co-worker who insists he's making $5k per month. He bets on baseball and watches the injury reports like crazy. He bets on pitcher matchups and when teams give a star a day off. He also plots how the bullpens have been used knowing the skipper doesn't have all of his reliever available on certain days. But he agrees that he is making the money off of someone's loss. The house just takes a percentage. The game is getting people to play. The biggest problem is the impulsive gambling made possible via apps. Peopel get pissed if they lose the "under", for example. Then they get upset and try to win it back when they get emotional.
So all of this happened when the tribes started gambling on the reservations. Owners like Jerry Jones realized how much money they were losing off of their teams. So they started to invest in gambling outfits and lobbying politicians.
My advice would be to heavily regulate it. First, I'd kill the gambling via apps. I'd regulate that bets need to be place 30 minutes before the event (you can't bet on the next pitch or play). And you limit the size of the bet along with a max dollar amount for day, month and year.
Actually does become the tax payer problem.
When I say hacking it’s more likely friends or brothers that are of age are helping them get accounts.
Not significantly nor anymore than countless other things that taxpayers spend money on
Taxpayers don't spend money on anything. It's the confiscatory power of the state with the state deciding where the money is spent.
so it is ok for taxpayers, in any amount, to have to pay for stupid gamblers (which is, actually, subsidizing the gambling houses to make even more money)
I don't care about classifying people. Wasting money because we've made the stupid mistake of popularizing a harmful addiction is just dumb and bad. I am not interested in discussing if it is more dumb and worse than other governmental stupid mistakes.
It is bad. Start a different thread of you want to discuss other bad policy issues.
Oh geez, busted by the redoubtable PurposePitch. You can't put anything by this guy.
OK, dude, you nailed me dead to rights. I had a big-time problem. It ruined my life. I've been in and out of rehab for decades.
Good grief.
But joking aside, my betting on football was a sidenote to the main point I was making, namely the difficulty of helping immature people stay safe from themselves. Passing laws, imposing regulations, and prohibiting behavior only goes so far in that regard whether the issue be alcohol...cigarettes...speed limits...sports betting...or a number of things subject to abuse by troubled individuals.
That's why I think some regulation of legal gambling, to include sports betting, is reasonable but prohibition: not so much.
Not much different than folks allowing (passively, or actively) their kids to drink, or vape.
You'll hear all the stories about how this is bad, that is bad ... and then those same people will reminiscence about how much fun they had getting loaded at 15/16 and causing all sorts of (illegal) mischief. But it was all just harmless fun, according to them. It's just accepted by a large contingent of people that you're going to act like a delinquent ... and if you call them out on it, you're just a judgmental fuddy duddy. And then these folks will go back to talking about how this is ruining society, and that is ruining society. So many folks justify their own idiocy and condemn that of others.
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