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The rising human cost of sports betting

nytimes.com

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Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#141

Post by steve76 »

throwawaynay wrote: post #62
PKop wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Drug dealers are routinely executed in countries where the death penalty exist for drugs, it doesn't seem to stop them. People were sentenced to 20years in prison for a joint in the US, that didn't stop most people from trying it. And you really can't deny the "do more harm than good" part. "don't take a very small risk for your health or we will hang you" doesn't exactly seem like harm reduction.

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Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#142

Post by dylan604 »

majani wrote: post #120
dylan604 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name a famous footballer that cannot play. The comparisons to the Kardashians is quite a stretch.

Yeah, I can only remember Rashford and Lingard trying that approach earlier in their careers but they quickly stopped it once their performance quality dipped

It's not like either of them have been well managed the past few seasons. They were skilled enough to catch the attention that brought them to where they are. Maybe they focused too much on the attention and less to what got the attention in the first place. That's unfortunately part of the gaffer's job to manage the players off the field as much as the tactics on the field.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#143

Post by sjtindell »

babypuncher wrote: post #73
vgeek wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.theringer.com/2019/6/5/18644504/sports-betting-b... This is a long read, but is really insightful on how the industry really works. If you're a consistently winning bettor, you're going to get blocked pretty quickly when you're betting against the house. Why would a casino want to play a game where they don't have odds in their favor when they can just ban the sharps and feast on the casuals? With parimut…

I think that should be illegal. If we are going to allow casinos to operate at all, then we shouldn't allow them to discriminate against potential customers on the basis that said customers are better at the game. If that means their business model is no longer viable, then that is their problem.

Predatory tactics, facilitating addiction, not good. But what you’re saying feels to me like a rule that says you aren’t allowed to play betting games unless you take every single bet. What? Consider that for yourself. Every person on the street who walks up to you and says “I bet you that…”, you are required to take that bet? Or you’re never allowed to make a bet again? We as people pick and choose what bets we take.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#144

Post by diskzero »

One of the greatest professional shames of my life was being part of a fantasy sports for profit startup. We received tens of millions of funding from a company that is one of the major sport book operators in Las Vegas. What I first thought would be a fun way for friends to play with a little more "skin in the game" exposed me to some very bleak and dystopian ways that technology could be used to extract resources from those who could least afford it.

I suppose it is no surprise to anyone semi-aware of how casinos operate that the house will always win. Would it be a surprise to learn that the data being generated by fantasy sports app customers were being used to actively create situations where they would lose, or at least reduce, the amount of their winnings? It shouldn't be.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#145

Post by caddemon »

aidenn0 wrote: post #51
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.

My understanding is that college basketball is the worst team sport: 1. One player can significantly affect the outcome 2. The players are being paid peanuts 3. shaving points can be very lucrative to the fixers without actually affecting the outcome of the game. A 5 figure payout just to win a game by less than expected can look like a great deal to a college athlete

I'm not sure why betting on college sports is legal at all. I believe when MA legalized gambling they said pro sports only.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#146

Post by mikeodds »

diskzero wrote: post #144

One of the greatest professional shames of my life was being part of a fantasy sports for profit startup. We received tens of millions of funding from a company that is one of the major sport book operators in Las Vegas. What I first thought would be a fun way for friends to play with a little more "skin in the game" exposed me to some very bleak and dystopian ways that technology could be used to extract resources f…

Can you give any examples of how the data was used to increase losses? Quite interested.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#147

Post by kesselvon »

margalabargala wrote: post #139
bregma wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State lotteries are just a tax on the stupid.

People like to say this because it's a nice sound-bite that lets people feel like they themselves are not among the stupid. It ignores the reality that poverty is a causative agent for lacking the appropriate math skill to recognize that playing the lottery is not a good financial choice, and self-perpetuates that poverty.

Poor people don't buy lotteries because they're a good investment, they buy them because its fleeting hope that they'll escape their circumstances.

Probability is like...a Grade 5-6 concept.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#148

Post by aidenn0 »

majani wrote: post #132
hattmall wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Referees in all the top leagues still get paid average salaries yet they are the most powerful person on the field. They are the point of failure in modern sports

Maybe other leagues pay less, but mean NFL referee salary is about $200k. I suspect it wouldn't be cheap to pay one of them off, since getting caught risks prison time, damages, and millions in future income lost.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#149

Post by diskzero »

mikeodds wrote: post #146
diskzero wrote: post #144

One of the greatest professional shames of my life was being part of a fantasy sports for profit startup. We received tens of millions of funding from a company that is one of the major sport book operators in Las Vegas. What I first thought would be a fun way for friends to play with a little more "skin in the game" exposed me to some very bleak and dystopian ways that technology could be used to extract resources f…

Can you give any examples of how the data was used to increase losses? Quite interested.

I feel as if I comment with too much detail, I may be contacted by the Attorneys General of various states. In the early days, things were totally unregulated. Odds, statistics and other variables could be adjusted or manipulated. Automated accounts could hedge against, or join with, elite players. All trades, team compositions, trends and statistics were visible internally. Think of all the ways that one could abuse high frequency trading and apply them to sport betting. It could be very ugly.
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