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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

#231

Post by sidewndr46 »

crubier wrote: post #185
sidewndr46 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this how every major betting operation works? I'm not counting lotteries because although you could argue that you are "betting" on some numbers anyone with a 6th grade education that there is no difference in expected outcomes if you choose different numbers. Why would bookmakers ever take bets from someone they don't expect to make money from?

There is actually a difference in expected outcomes at lottery if you choose different numbers. Commonly played number will be shared among all winners, so your share will be less than with rare numbers.

The problem with this is it presupposes you have some actual chance of winning. You don't, no one splits $0.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#232

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

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.

If only every human was an island. Unfortunately we all pay for the gambling addicts.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#233

Post by gbronner »

Pointsbet has a bet that pays a linear dollar amount * (winner -loser)^2 - some specified number. And yes, this can be negative and severely so.

E.g. $10* (winning margin squared - 225).

This is not a bet that needs to exist. Nobody is likely to have the data necessary to have a reasonable opinion on this, or to be able to calculate the risk and reward accurately in their head.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#234

Post by analog31 »

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.

A casino is entirely a creature of government. It's regulated into existence, like a bank. Why would any government entitle an entity to exist, that allows you to siphon an unlimited amount of money out of their locality?

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#235

Post by dragonwriter »

analog31 wrote: post #234
babypuncher wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A casino is entirely a creature of government. It's regulated into existence, like a bank. Why would any government entitle an entity to exist, that allows you to siphon an unlimited amount of money out of their locality?

> A casino is entirely a creature of government. It's regulated into existence,

Gambling establishments have existed in some of the places with the weakest governments around. They are not regulated into existence, and are often regulated out of existence.

It's true large casinos are often a consequence of both regulating them out of existence in neighboring areas and creating a high regulatory bar to opening one in the area in question, which minimizes competition. But that's not regulating casinos into existence, it's upregulating size by downregulating number.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#236

Post by alar44 »

optimalsolver wrote: post #75
323 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we just legalize gambling, just like we should legalize drug use. People should be free to use drugs, drink alchool, or gamble.

Right. As long as we also we have hard measures to deal with those whose personal choices begin impacting their fellow citizens.

We do, they are called laws.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#237

Post by gbronner »

The problem is that the politicians do not regulate the speed at which people can lose money. Gambling is exciting, but the level of excitement is relatively independent of the amount wagered.

I think Montana limits stakes to small amounts for this reason.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#238

Post by asdff »

michaelt wrote: post #95
cactus2093 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by modern? My understanding is that the rise of index funds has been the biggest trend in this space over the past 20-30 years. Riskier bets like individual stock picking, or "experts" that con others with dubious ways of predicting the future, have been around forever.

Well, there are various other modern trends: * All stock market stuff feels modern, because 15-year-olds don't talk about it but 25-year-olds do. So it feels like something that wasn't really around/popular when you were young. * Some would say retailer investors who want to buy individual stocks should be holding them for the long term - and that a mobile app, letting you trade on the go, is an anti-feature. * The r…

Mobile apps have made it easier for people to do sensible strategies like dollar cost averaging. Fractional shares, recurring buys, and no fees were not something easily accessible to your average retail investor before mobile apps began introducing these features.

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#239

Post by maerF0x0 »

gnopgnip wrote: post #225
Pet_Ant wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>([I] think you should be able to do pretty much whatever the eff you want with your body and money). ... The decision to let the exist is as arbitrary as the decision to allow them to only play when they [win]. How do you square that with giving people autonomy? You can do what you want with your money, but you can't play if you don't feel like you are gonna win... there is an inherent contradiction there.

If you are a business open to the public, you can't discriminate based on gambling skill the same way you can't discriminate against other types of customers.

Gambling skill isnt a protected class

Re: The rising human cost of sports betting

#240

Post by noxvilleza »

wolverine876 wrote: post #74
philwelch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports betting has been legal in Europe for a very long time and we have yet to see a UEFA Champions League thrown.

That you know of. How does anyone know? Edits: Imagine the NFL learns that yesterday's NFC Championship game was fixed. What would they do? Make it public and destroy their entire enterprise? My guess is that many would hide it if they could, and the people involved certainly wouldn't want to talk about it. And imagine if they learn about it in 6 months, long after the Super Bowl. Just in terms of on-field results, h…

One of the best ways of knowing is by analyzing a large number of bets made punters from multiple sports books - it's easier to spot irregular betting patterns in this regard.
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