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Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

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11–20 of 106 posts

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#11
post #5
post #2

As an Australian, living in a society where betting is legal albeit fairly regulated: I sincerely hope not. The reason for that hope is that gambling and gambling advertising, with the rise of online betting sites and smartphone apps, has started to become a fairly genuine social issue. With advertisements like this one ( https://twitter.com/sportsbetcomau/status/863634984682233856 ) [note: Ben Johnson recently was f…

Speaking as an American, the choice in our society isn't between "voluntarily allow its citizens to be taken advantage of" and not that. It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

Between organized crime and ruthlessly efficient corporate entities seeking endless growth, though, which ultimately results in more exploitation and human misery?

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#12
post #5
post #2

As an Australian, living in a society where betting is legal albeit fairly regulated: I sincerely hope not. The reason for that hope is that gambling and gambling advertising, with the rise of online betting sites and smartphone apps, has started to become a fairly genuine social issue. With advertisements like this one ( https://twitter.com/sportsbetcomau/status/863634984682233856 ) [note: Ben Johnson recently was f…

Speaking as an American, the choice in our society isn't between "voluntarily allow its citizens to be taken advantage of" and not that. It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break the law to gamble but given the chance would blow hundreds of dollars on slots in a single visit to a casino. And they would go as often as possible because they liked the attention casinos gave them and they had nothing better to do.

Sure maybe legal gambling will let young people move from sketchy books to more legitimate operations, but they aren't really the ones that get abused by legalized gambling.

Casinos will find a way to exploit old folks with this, I guarantee it. Old people often have about as much going between their ears as ~11-13 year olds but have a lot more disposable income.

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#14
post #5
post #2

As an Australian, living in a society where betting is legal albeit fairly regulated: I sincerely hope not. The reason for that hope is that gambling and gambling advertising, with the rise of online betting sites and smartphone apps, has started to become a fairly genuine social issue. With advertisements like this one ( https://twitter.com/sportsbetcomau/status/863634984682233856 ) [note: Ben Johnson recently was f…

Speaking as an American, the choice in our society isn't between "voluntarily allow its citizens to be taken advantage of" and not that. It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

> It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

The government (via the NCAA) has already made it illegal for college athletes to accept money for anything related to sports. IMHO that ban has worked well for college athletes, and the feds should simply extend the ban to the rest of society and make pro sports illegal.

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#15
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an American, the choice in our society isn't between "voluntarily allow its citizens to be taken advantage of" and not that. It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break the law to gamble but given the chance would blow hundreds of dollars on slots in a single visit to a casino. And they would go as often as possible because they liked the attention casinos gave them and they had nothing better to do. Sure maybe legal gambling w…

Gambling hasn't always been so difficult. It's a practice with a long social history, often including attempts to stamp it out. Out of all of that, my impression is that it is generally not viewed as characteristically a vice of the old.

How are things different now? Do you think it's just that if you grow up around legal gambling and you're the type to waste everything you have on it, you won't have any money left to gamble away by the time you're old?

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an American, the choice in our society isn't between "voluntarily allow its citizens to be taken advantage of" and not that. It's between allowing gambling to be run by organized crime and creating a system that enables at least a modicum of accountability.

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break the law to gamble but given the chance would blow hundreds of dollars on slots in a single visit to a casino. And they would go as often as possible because they liked the attention casinos gave them and they had nothing better to do. Sure maybe legal gambling w…

I'm not sure if you've ever spent any time in an American casino, but the sports book is not where you find 'really old people', except perhaps the handful of older guys betting on horse races. And at the sports book area, chances are that you aren't going to encounter the sort of obvious problem gamblers that you see glued to the video poker and slots.

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. This is probably true among your demographic but it's not true of the biggest whales for casinos: really old people. My grandparents wouldn't break the law to gamble but given the chance would blow hundreds of dollars on slots in a single visit to a casino. And they would go as often as possible because they liked the attention casinos gave them and they had nothing better to do. Sure maybe legal gambling w…

I'm not sure if you've ever spent any time in an American casino, but the sports book is not where you find 'really old people', except perhaps the handful of older guys betting on horse races. And at the sports book area, chances are that you aren't going to encounter the sort of obvious problem gamblers that you see glued to the video poker and slots.

Right but you can modify sports games to become more like regular games. For example I claim you're making a sports bet but structure the game so that it's identical to slots. That's what they do in Kentucky to basically make legalized slot machines

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#19
post #13

Gambling/lotteries basically only harm people with innumeracy; ergo why should it ever be prohibited?

In other words, gambling should be allowed because it only harms the under-educated? I'm not sure that's a very compelling argument considering the current state of K-12 education in the US.

Re: Will Supreme Court open a ‘dam burst’ of legalized sports betting?

#20
post #7
post #2

As an Australian, living in a society where betting is legal albeit fairly regulated: I sincerely hope not. The reason for that hope is that gambling and gambling advertising, with the rise of online betting sites and smartphone apps, has started to become a fairly genuine social issue. With advertisements like this one ( https://twitter.com/sportsbetcomau/status/863634984682233856 ) [note: Ben Johnson recently was f…

Why not just ban gratuitous advertising? I believe we do it with cigarette companies.

My opinion is that Australia should ban gambling advertising. I also believe that Australia should also remove the electronic poker machine licenses from the Returned Services Leagues, and I also think that Australia should toughen up the mandatory anti-problem-gambling information at venues licensed for gambling, and in applications designed for gambling. I also think that the laws around ATM withdrawals at gambling venues should be tightened.

These are my opinions. They're not objective fact, and they're honestly not well-researched enough that they'll all provide measurable benefit, but I also don't think there's any way these things could make things worse for our country.

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