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America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

vox.com

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Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#51

Post by chmorgan »

Wait until Vox finds out about alcohol and marijuana...

Seriously though, too much of anything is an issue and gambling is no exception. Even eating can have terrible health effects. And lack of sufficient exercise is quite bad for you too.

Could it be a problem for some people? Yes, of course. Is it their choice? Yes, it is. Putting it in perspective, it's yet another personal choice that can have a dramatic impact on your quality of life, and if you have a family to support, theirs as well.

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#52

Post by arrosenberg »

Arrath wrote: post #34

I've long looked askance at the rise of legal sports betting, back to the draft kings ads. It just feels so utterly insidious. The machine that is capital is running out of ways to extract money from us little folk, and wider spread gambling is the last gasp? I dunno, hard to express. It just gives me a bad feeling.

Running out of capitalist* ways to milk to common folk. More rents are comin'.

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#54

Post by theowawaysed »

nickpeterson wrote: post #6

This one is going to hit really hard over time, because it normalizes betting on sports. Children will grow up in environments where it’s just what people do. How far are we from allowing people to bet money on high school sports? We’re going to start having big problems with degenerate gambling addictions in 10-15 years.

People who used to say that gambling is a personal right are either stupid or idiots.

It will destroy the communities.

Thak god. My country doesn't even allow lottery

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#55

Post by htag »

I am surprised fairness in sport isn't a more central theme in this discussion. As more money is spent in sports betting there is more incentive to "fix" games. I view sports betting as a threat to fair competition. Maybe we've spent so long with limited sports gambling that we have forgotten the impact these scandals have.

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#56

Post by mistyvales »

paulpauper wrote: post #48
mistyvales wrote: post #43

In Minnesota, the taxpayers are paying for corporate welfare to the tune of billions of dollars via multiple Pro sports stadiums, the main one being the Vikings stadium. Back when Jesse Ventura was governor, he had a plan to run statewide legal sports betting to pay for those stadiums (since the multi-billion dollar NFL corp wasn't going to). Of course it was squashed immediately without any research or investigation…

Not just welfare for the stadium, but sports betting means more literal welfare for people who can afford it least. Sports betting takes money from the least successful and funnels it off in the worst, least productive way possible.

Fair point, and totally agree, but it won't stop people from betting or gambling. I wonder what it would take to ban Powerball or other lotteries? Worth the discussion for sure.

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#57

Post by jrumbut »

KyeRussell wrote: post #39
denkmoon wrote: post #7

Look at Australia for a cautionary tale on letting gaming companies do as they please. I've worked in the industry and I'm very much on the side of letting people gamble if they choose to do so, but _everywhere_ in our society is just plastered with ads for it. The volume of ads for gambling during a sports events can sometimes exceed the actual commentary on the event. I'd ban gambling ads, and I'd ban pokies (tange…

I live in Western Australia. We don’t allow pokies outside the casino (well, actually, they aren’t technically pokies, due to some completely immaterial detail, but they look, smell, and quack like the duck). Going to the Eastern States is always such a shock. In fact I am writing this from a plane from Melbourne to Sydney, two capital cities that are utterly gripped by pokies everywhere in a way that I’m just not us…

It was such a terrible and unnecessary idea.

I know real people and communities are being hurt by this but what really broke my heart was watching baseball, where they've banned all time great players for life over very small or unproven gambling offenses, be turned into a fancy roulette wheel for cell phone casinos.

I grew up watching baseball, but now I watch these broadcasts and think "how could I let a kid watch these announcers talk about money lines and parlays ad nauseum?" That's a sad thought.

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#59

Post by jknoepfler »

Barrin92 wrote: post #47
Arrath wrote: post #34

I've long looked askance at the rise of legal sports betting, back to the draft kings ads. It just feels so utterly insidious. The machine that is capital is running out of ways to extract money from us little folk, and wider spread gambling is the last gasp? I dunno, hard to express. It just gives me a bad feeling.

When I moved to Japan one of the sadder things for me in smaller towns was how many old people just spend their entire day playing pachinko. It seemed legitimately like the largest economic activity in some places.

On the one hand, I agree. On the other hand, having played a lot of live poker, I'm fond of my local OMCs (old man coffees) who just want to chat and play cards, and are slightly losing over time (most to the house). That doesn't feel nearly as inequitable as the whale-hunting gaming ultimately depends upon (and which drove me away from it).

Which isn't to suggest that pachinko doesn't have whales (or blackjack, or the state lottery, or slots), or that the picture you paint isn't depressing (I've seen it around the world in different forms, and it's always very depressing).

Re: America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

#60

Post by Gustomaximus »

technion wrote: post #35
denkmoon wrote: post #7

Look at Australia for a cautionary tale on letting gaming companies do as they please. I've worked in the industry and I'm very much on the side of letting people gamble if they choose to do so, but _everywhere_ in our society is just plastered with ads for it. The volume of ads for gambling during a sports events can sometimes exceed the actual commentary on the event. I'd ban gambling ads, and I'd ban pokies (tange…

Nearly every nightclub, dance floor, live music venue, and even many restaurants in pubs that I had in my younger years were pulled down to create "VIP rooms", which is what we call "rooms full of poker machines". It's hard to express just how depressing it is what exactly has been done to sydney. I genuinely don't know where people go out to socialise in their younger years these days, I cannot possibly imagine bein…

Also Australia. My experience is different. We absolutly have a bunch of pokies room, but these go hand in hand with pubs, bistros and other standard entertainment options. The only thing pokies seem to have largely wiped out is the live music option which used to be fairly standard.

As for socialising, it's the same. At least for me, very few people I know hit the pokies. Plently of bars, pubs, cafes etc. It seems more to be lonely people who aren't socialising that take to pokies from my limited view.

Personally I think the need to wind them down. Do something like ban advertising and reduce licensed machines ~3% a year type thing and they can slowly disappear.

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