Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 311 posts

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#251

Post by oremolten »

burningChrome wrote: post #83
dkrich wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is backwards. Casinos offer huge cross subsidization opportunities like getting people to spend lots of money in clubs and bars or gamble on games like slots that have a huge house edge while apps have near zero cross subsidization opportunities and massive overhead. An app running at draftkings scale costs a lot to operate. I’ve believed for a long time and continue to that the math on these businesses just doe…

>> I’ve believed for a long time and continue to that the math on these businesses just doesn’t work. These companies and their apps feels like they're framing this as a social media app. Get together with your friends, play against each other. Its very, very much like fantasy football which generates billions in revenue every year. To me, those are the people and the money they're aiming for - not the casino betters…

all my friends who are into the fantasy are now competing on some sports gambling app/site in the same exact manner. Who's teams win the most money etc. They were practically begging me to join them "Look you get like 700 free dollars man! just make some bets and add money and you can cash it out etc etc" They've already been hooked.

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#252

Post by oremolten »

dkrich wrote: post #211
adw wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve believed for a long time and continue to that the math on these businesses just doesn’t work. Particularly for Las Vegas, the business may not be what you think it is. Vegas is, amongst other things, a global money laundrette.

Casinos are a proven business and have their highs and lows but will be fine. I’m talking specifically about betting apps. The fact that casinos have barely even entered the online space tells you all you need to know about how profitable it is

I'd argue that's because until the last few years these forms of gambling have been illegal.

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#253

Post by rjbwork »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #246
rjbwork wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport. When you can bet a lot of money on how long a college players plays, or how many points they get in a particular game, what's to stop them from having a relative make a bet and they just fake a cramp? Or get assaulted or murdered, internet death pool style? All kinds of really fucked up incentives are created by these legalized betting apps.

Do you think that might be a little extreme? Where is a legal betting app allowing people to bet on that?

If you bet a player gets 0 points in a game and then you shoot them in the leg...you've essentially bet on them being shot in the leg!

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#254

Post by jemfinch »

llamaimperative wrote: post #49
snapcaster wrote: post #44

These apps should be banned. Gambling is a social ill with such a limited upside and so much harm it can't really be justified

Agreed -- I will continue to shout it from every perch I can: politicians who are actively working to proliferate these apps should be (at least journalistically) investigated. I would bet on this being a well-above-random signal of either a personal gambling addiction or corruption.

But how much would you bet?

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#255

Post by ericmcer »

snapcaster wrote: post #44

These apps should be banned. Gambling is a social ill with such a limited upside and so much harm it can't really be justified

could they regulate it in some manner? I like betting on sports but to the tune of $50/month or so, it just makes any event way more interesting when you have $20 on the line.

Maybe just put a limit on how much you can transfer to the app each month or something? Like $500?

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#256

Post by HDThoreaun »

Gtex555 wrote: post #234
HDThoreaun wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most gamblers are casuals. I spend $5-10 a week during football and usually am down like $10 at the end of the year. It provides a lot of entertainment, sucks that some people can’t control themselves but I shouldn’t be punished for that. Agree that heavily regulating and perhaps banning advertising needs to be done.

the government's goal should be to protect the population not to be fair to one person who enjoys the odd $5 bet.

Are we banning cars then? What about unhealthy food? Heart disease is the number one killer in this country so if the gov wanted to protect people it would make sure everyone was skinny.

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#257

Post by inkcapmushroom »

gcanyon wrote: post #56
hermannj314 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a biotechnology company, we had thousands of clients but five of them were 80% of our revenue. In your world, should that business not exist as well? I don't understand the princple that revenue should be uniformly distributed as a condition for existing. How would you enforce this?

I’m not claiming revenue must be even. And I’m assuming that the five customers actually benefitted from your company’s work? If so, then they’re not really comparable to gambling addicts, alcoholics, and gun fanatics, right? We already (poorly) enforce (weak) laws requiring casinos not to prey on addicts. We already (poorly) enforce (weak) laws requiring bars not to over-serve and alcoholics to get treatment sometim…

I don't get how gun fanatics fit into these other groups.

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#258

Post by kayodelycaon »

jerf wrote: post #154
ronsor wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that people seem to just now realize that sports betting is a bad idea. As you said, the worst aspect is the large amount of marketing and advertising these platforms receive; I wouldn't care if they weren't pushed so heavily.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do learn from history learn that we never learn from history.

I always phrased it as "Those who learn from history are doomed to watch others repeat it." :)

Re: Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts

#259

Post by kayodelycaon »

caeril wrote: post #192
dehugger wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you loathe sports that much why are you forcing yourself to watch them? "Fitting into absurdist normie culture" is ludicrous. Are you not capable of making friends without drunkenly feigning interest in their hobbies?

Short answer: No, I'm not. People are generally extremely intolerant of others who deviate slightly from the norm. Having friends is a fun fantasy, though.

> People are generally extremely intolerant of others who deviate slightly from the norm.

I strongly disagree with this.

A lot of us in the furry fandom have friends who are not furry. You would not believe the number of "normal" people who have seen pictures of my fursuit and thought it was cool. Everyone in my bible study thinks furry conventions look like fun but they would never attend a convention themselves.

And if your difference is not with identity or hobbies, significant number of our group are neurodivergent and/or LGBTQ+(whatever the acronym is today).

Despite what's happening currently, US culture has gotten less uptight about these things in the last three decades. With the internet people have a lot more exposure to things they wouldn't have seen before. And I believe, more accepting as a result.

Finding a friend can be difficult, but with the internet it is not impossible.

Post reply on HN