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America’s bad bet on expanding legal sports gambling

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

#81

Post by iainmerrick »

nyjah wrote: post #15
iainmerrick wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until sports betting was legalised in the US, FanDuel and DraftKings specialised in fantasy football, where you pay to enter competitions against other players. The winning players split the prize money, the company takes any money left over. For legal reasons the prize pot was fixed so if not enough people entered a contest the company would have to eat the loss. That was arguably not sports betting, therefore legal…

Until sports betting was legalised in the US, FanDuel and DraftKings specialised in fantasy football Not to be pedantic, but they specialized in 'daily fantasy', which differs from general 'fantasy football'. In daily fantasy, you are given a budget, players are given a value and you draft every week. In regular fantasy football, you draft once at the beginning of the year and manage that team for the rest of the sea…

Pedantic is good! Thanks for the clarification.

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

#82

Post by kleene_op »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #61
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…

What if the loss rate on pokies was legally set at 0.5%? Right now they are around 13% (i think?), and that is pure evil.

IMO it should be increased to something like 50% or above so people stop using them altogether.

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

#83

Post by eskaytwo »

labster wrote: post #32
justinator wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Pokey" in old slang meant a jail cell. "Throw you into the pokey" a pokie is a video poker or slot machine Ah! You mean a, "fruit machine"?

I believe he was talking about one-armed bandits.

The tradie’s laptop

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

#84

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

alanlammiman wrote: post #22
jcranmer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all seriousness: where are e-cigarettes more restricted than cigarettes?

Brazil. Sale of ecigs is not permitted, cigarettes have the usual restrictions (but not taxed as heavily as some other places). Still - I have to give it to them. I get the feeling it was the right call. No vaping ads and vape shops everywhere like I see in Europe

Vaping in some EU countries is out of control. Due to the lack of government regulations compared to normal cigs, smokers found it as a good loophole for indoor smoking and switched to vaping everywhere, especially in public spaces like malls, pubs, clubs, shopping centers, etc.

And whenever you tell them "please stop vaping here", unless you're a bouncer, they'll lash out saying "it's not illegal, show me which law forbids me vaping indoor; yeah smoking is forbidden indoor, but vaping is not smoking and this is just steam bro, not smoke, it's not dangerous for you".

Some venues enforce a vape ban on their own, but most don't want to piss off their customers, so many venues ignore the people who vape inside.

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

#85

Post by himinlomax »

alanlammiman wrote: post #22
jcranmer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all seriousness: where are e-cigarettes more restricted than cigarettes?

Brazil. Sale of ecigs is not permitted, cigarettes have the usual restrictions (but not taxed as heavily as some other places). Still - I have to give it to them. I get the feeling it was the right call. No vaping ads and vape shops everywhere like I see in Europe

> I get the feeling it was the right call. No vaping ads and vape shops everywhere like I see in Europe

Vapes cause at most 1/100 the harm cigarettes do. There is no combustion products, only nicotine, and not always. The only harm they do is as a possible gateway to actual smoked tobacco. As such, banning them while allowing tobacco is completely nonsensical. It should be the other way around.

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

#86

Post by newmanah223 »

Gambling creates no wealth for society as a whole. A gambling island like Vegas may benefit because they suck wealth from surrounding areas.

Any jobs or government revenue created from gambling come at the expense of productive activities, while simultaneously creating social problems from addiction and crime.

I hate the term gambling. It isn't a gamble for the state lotto that sets mathematical payouts that ensure a certain percent profit, nor is it a gamble for the casino owner with his slot machines.

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

#87

Post by lozenge »

technion wrote: post #68
irrational wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the tax the government is levying on these machines? I presume this is a case of “follow the money”.

It was recently increased to and there was a huge lobbying effort with many places pretending they will go out of business. Edit: Depends on business size. https://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/taxes-duties-levies-royalties...

The UK has a limit on the number of machines per shop which means the shops just fill the high streets with four machines in each one. It would be preferable to just have places with rows of machines.

The starter tax rate is a clear incentive for every venue to have a little gambling room upstairs. No getting away from your impulses if you like to gamble.

Nice to see they got covid relief too.

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

#88

Post by lozenge »

winternett wrote: post #72
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.

They do remind you to call a counselling number if you're addicted to gambling after the FanDuel commercial that tries to convince you to gamble though... So there's that... sigh

In the UK the gambling companies funded a campaign "when the FUN stops, STOP" with a nice big FUN the size of a bus.

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

#89

Post by agtech_andy »

An example of a gambling dystopia is Serbia. There are gambling places everywhere, even in small towns or next to otherwise scenic places. It is terribly depressing to be constantly reminded of this massive suck on productive society. And these places are a visual assault, the front of the buildings are a mix bright, flashing lights and blackened windows on otherwise lively streets.

I really wish I was exaggerating. The Google Street View of Belgrade hasn't been updated since 2014, but if you look up "Belgrade Casino", you can see just how many of these have spread in the last decade.

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

#90

Post by unmole »

newmanah223 wrote: post #86

Gambling creates no wealth for society as a whole. A gambling island like Vegas may benefit because they suck wealth from surrounding areas. Any jobs or government revenue created from gambling come at the expense of productive activities, while simultaneously creating social problems from addiction and crime. I hate the term gambling. It isn't a gamble for the state lotto that sets mathematical payouts that ensure a…

> Gambling creates no wealth for society as a whole.

How is it different from any other form of entertainment?

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