The rising human cost of sports betting • Hacker News Board

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#41

Post by lgdskhglsa » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

tonystubblebine wrote: post #19

animal_spirits wrote: post #8

Promotion of gambling should be likened to promotion of cigarettes. It should be illegal to advertise gambling, but I don't think it should be outlawed to gamble. People should be able to choose how they live their lives, but we should do all that we can to prevent mass manipulation through adverts in industries that are known to be harmful. I also think that alcohol and e-cig advertising should be outlawed as well.

I spent some time in Montana and was shocked to see how many businesses have "casinos" attached to them. I never got to look inside but I think these are basically a small room with a few slot machines. They were everywhere. For example, I ate at a chinese restaurant and there was a side room advertising poker and keno. I came away feeling like there was a web that would catch every single person in the state who had…

Growing up in Las Vegas, it was common for me to see a slot machine room in grocery stores and gas stations. Most movie theaters, bowling alleys, restaurants, etc were in the casinos. I've known a few people with gambling addictions, and it's definitely not easy with slot machines every where you go. But the casinos pay the State's bills, so it's easy to see why regulation is hard to come by.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#42

Post by MrFantastic » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #24

I can confirm that sports betting is also slowly eating away at what is left of the game of football (soccer, for US HN-ers) over here in Europe. We’ve got the English Premier League and the Champions League that are (maybe) still free of this cancer, as in (maybe) their results and general play are as close to 100%-fair as one can get, but outside of that it’s the Wild West. The second leagues in most of Central and…

Betting on footie seems like a long term loser.

The bookmakers cut guarantees you will lose over the long run.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#43

Post by hattmall » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

ben7799 wrote: post #18

I think it's just a matter of time before we see a Super Bowl or World Series thrown due to the legalization of Sport betting... We have been here before and seen all of this before and it's really hard to believe history won't repeat itself. It's stupid all the way down.

Legal sports betting makes it less likely to have the game thrown. The Athlete salaries far outpace the potential gains of an individual bettor so you need bookmaker involvement but the legal books are so large that they don't won't one-sided games or any particular outcome. They are able to balance their books and make money like never before by keeping an even line.

It's only when the house is constrained in their ability to balance that fixing matches make sense. Even 10 years ago my local bookmaker use to fly to Panama on big weekends with a suitcase of cash to lay off, now he just uses a few apps on his phone.

Something small might get corrupted but I doubt the rate for major events would be any higher.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#44

Post by hannasanarion » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

slap_shot wrote: post #30

hannasanarion wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a 1:1 comparison. For one thing, the regulations are different. There are few if any restrictions on online gambling advertising, whereas alcohol ads are disallowed from using imagery that might appeal to children, can only be run in places where at least 70% of viewers are adult, etc. But more importantly, the nature of the product and the intent of the creators is different. Alcohol vendors for the most pa…

> Gambling, and gambling advertisements, are deliberately designed to hook people to it as an addiction. > Only 25% of Americans regularly gamble > and just 2% of gamblers produce 50% of industry revenue. Very interesting. Do you have sources for these?

Google exists, bro.

> Gambling, and gambling advertisements, are deliberately designed to hook people to it as an addiction.

What do you think all the $500-1000 "free cash starts" that the NFL is constantly advertising are supposed to do? There's a reason that free loosies were banned in the Tobacco Control Act of 96. For-profit companies don't give stuff away for free unless they think they'll get way more than that back from a portion of freebie recipients.

> Only 25% of Americans regularly gamble

https://www.statista.com/topics/1368/gambling/#dossierKeyfig...

> and just 2% of gamblers produce 50% of industry revenue.

https://www.promisesbehavioralhealth.com/addiction-recovery-...

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#45

Post by jrockway » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:21 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #29

Since covid started, it seems like every other commercial these days is for either sports betting (FanDuel, DraftKings) or online casinos (all of the big casino companies have an 'online' counterpart) They all advertise some sort of $100 risk-free bets or something of that nature. Was this some sort of concession to physical casinos since their customers weren't able to come on-site and gamble?

I think the timing is unrelated. There was a supreme court ruling in 2018 that paved the way.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#46

Post by slap_shot » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

I'm pretty Laissez-Faire about things, but a recent interaction with gambling is making me reconsider:

My friend got a lot of free credits from the major sports books and wrote some code that he felt could generate a profit. We all threw in a little bit of money and let the program do what it does. Within a month we started doing 1k a day in profit on 3k wagered. Right as we approached 30k in profit, every major book limited our maximum wagers to pennies on the dollar, effectively making the system worthless.

So this product exists when the customer loses money, but ceases to exist when the customer makes money. It's sort of an odd product in that regard.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#47

Post by mdoms » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:24 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #24

I can confirm that sports betting is also slowly eating away at what is left of the game of football (soccer, for US HN-ers) over here in Europe. We’ve got the English Premier League and the Champions League that are (maybe) still free of this cancer, as in (maybe) their results and general play are as close to 100%-fair as one can get, but outside of that it’s the Wild West. The second leagues in most of Central and…

Are you saying that players are throwing games due to sports betting? Can you give an example? I'm not doubting you, I have never followed football so I have no idea, I'm just curious. Especially about your statement "...if you know where to look and how to look at things it all becomes clear(er)".

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#48

Post by PKop » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:24 PM UTC

shipman05 wrote: post #13

animal_spirits wrote: post #8

Promotion of gambling should be likened to promotion of cigarettes. It should be illegal to advertise gambling, but I don't think it should be outlawed to gamble. People should be able to choose how they live their lives, but we should do all that we can to prevent mass manipulation through adverts in industries that are known to be harmful. I also think that alcohol and e-cig advertising should be outlawed as well.

This has been my position for a while on so called "vices". Prohibition is ineffective and often does more harm than good, but allowing companies to advertise these products to young people and those who are susceptible to abuse is a net negative for society. Worst of all are government run lotteries. A state run lottery may be preferable to one run by organized crime, but running millions of dollars worth of ads wit…

>Prohibition is ineffective and often does more harm than good

I don't believe this is true, though it is often parroted as so.

Effectiveness of prohibition is determined in large part on severity of punishments.

It is imperfect, and will always be. But it can absolutely work to minimize the behavior being targeted.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#49

Post by mdoms » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

slap_shot wrote: post #28

animal_spirits wrote: post #8

Promotion of gambling should be likened to promotion of cigarettes. It should be illegal to advertise gambling, but I don't think it should be outlawed to gamble. People should be able to choose how they live their lives, but we should do all that we can to prevent mass manipulation through adverts in industries that are known to be harmful. I also think that alcohol and e-cig advertising should be outlawed as well.

How about fast food or unhealthy food/drinks? And would you change anything about how prescription medication is advertised?

Prescription medication advertising is banned everywhere in the developed world except USA and New Zealand.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#50

Post by acomjean » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

animal_spirits wrote: post #8

Promotion of gambling should be likened to promotion of cigarettes. It should be illegal to advertise gambling, but I don't think it should be outlawed to gamble. People should be able to choose how they live their lives, but we should do all that we can to prevent mass manipulation through adverts in industries that are known to be harmful. I also think that alcohol and e-cig advertising should be outlawed as well.

the comedian Mitch Hedberg had a bit about this.

"You know how they advertise a casino, they always show a guy winning money, but that’s false advertising. Because that’s what happens the least. Perhaps when they advertise a hamburger they could show a guy choking. This is what happened once."