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Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

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Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#221

Post by gaindustries »

alexashka wrote: post #219
keiferski wrote: post #67

The legalization and popularity of gambling is more than just an immoral activity that has negative societal effects. It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. If hard work or time doesn’t make your life better, then fate is just chance, and you might as well throw your…

[flagged]

They are 100% correct, I can tell you that with absolute certainty. There is not much to debate here.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#222

Post by prewett »

331c8c71 wrote: post #56
darth_avocado wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while they tend to be absent from more affluent ones. It’s not that they don’t want to be, it’s that affluent neighborhoods tend to keep things that are considered “low class” out of them. The only Safeway in my city that doesn’t sell lottery tickets is the one in the most affluent neighborhood.

I bet the better off do gamble on the financial markets though

There are many ways to use the financial markets that are not gambling. Buying an index fund or Coca-Cola isn’t gambling; it is not even very risky. Nor are individual stocks gambling, as you can get a reasonable idea of what a company’s price ought to be and how it is likely to perform in the future, at least for well-established companies. It’s also harder to get into debt, as long as you don’t short, because you can only spend money you have, and the stock does not become worthless if your analysis is wrong. (At least, there are warning signs)

Now day-trading? I consider that gambling, because any particular day’s price movement is a lot closer to random.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#223

Post by WillAdams »

keiferski wrote: post #125
victorbjorklund wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say gambling in itself isnt immoral. The problem is that a small % of people get addicted and end up spending all their money and more on betting. And that the industry makes almost all their profits on those that are addicted.

Sure, we could get into a discussion on the morality of gambling itself, but if we look at pretty much every global ethical tradition (Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, etc.) it is frowned upon strongly. It seems to me like widespread gambling = negative social effects is a pretty widespread, obvious conclusion that most civilizations have reached. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling#Religious_views

Moreover, one simply needs to look at which games casinos select to see how not only does the house always win, but it chooses to win more and entertain less --- Faro was once a popular game, and by all accounts is a great deal of fun to play, but a Faro table does not make as much money for the house as Blackjack and other games, so one doesn't see them in casinos these days.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#224

Post by FergusArgyll »

psychoslave wrote: post #89
keanb wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There is no such thing as individual, only a collection of cells. And no such thing as cells, just a bunch of atoms...

No one thinks of the quarks anymore - what with all this collectivism

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#225

Post by gaindustries »

sethammons wrote: post #151
roenxi wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, seems likely in a lot of cases. But if the starting point is talking about someone who makes chronically irrational decisions then life is going to seem a bit hopeless. The issue isn't as much they're giving up as it is that they aren't making rational decisions. Thread ancestor was saying "Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing". And I think that th…

You are so wildly off base from my lived experience that I have to assume you have no experience with generational poverty. You are not saving up to improve your life because the savings rate is too small to effectively matter. And all the savings you muster can be wiped out by, well, any extra expense. Car breaks down, medical copay, kid needs clothes due to a growth spurt, bank fees, etc. If any chance event will b…

Yes. Of all people, Jordan Peterson used to talk about this a lot. He said anybody will break from enough cycles of hard work with no reward, and that's when people do stupid things. The nickel and diming of everything alone is enough to drive a person insane if they don't make enough money to ignore it.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#226

Post by throw0101d »

keiferski wrote: post #67

The legalization and popularity of gambling is more than just an immoral activity that has negative societal effects. It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. If hard work or time doesn’t make your life better, then fate is just chance, and you might as well throw your…

> It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better.

Kyla Scanlon (?) coined the term "financial nihilism" to describe this feeling:

* https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-financial-nihilism

She thinks it's why things like cryptocurrencies/BTC have taken off: it's a chance to 'hit the jackpot', as many folks don't see another way to (financial) success.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#227

Post by shkkmo »

roenxi wrote: post #144
keiferski wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pretty much just repeated the same thing back, so yes, I think that is your opinion. > If someone has enough money that wasting it on gambling is a problem They don't have enough money, which is precisely the point. The link I shared shows how lower income people spend dramatically more of their money on lotteries and gambling. > their problem is that they are irrational gamblers. How do you think they got that p…

Just putting it out there that I have a better grasp of my opinion than you do. Let me try this a different way. Which part of your comment do you think I don't know about/disagree with and, with reference to something I said, why? Let's just pick one thing that you think is clearest, but be specific. EDIT You'll notice I haven't disagreed with anything you've said so far this thread, apart from where you have mischa…

> If someone has enough money that wasting it on gambling is a problem, then they clearly had no business giving up hope because "the system" doesn't have the ability to make their lives better. The system that makes their lives better is the money they just wasted, but invested in something productive.

This seems to be pretty clearly saying that you think poor people only gamble with money they don't need and if they didn't gamble they would be able to stop being poor by investing that money. That seems a pretty clear statement that you think that poor people who gamble wouldn't be poor if they didn't irrationally gamble money that they should have invested in their future.

You say you have a "better grasp" of your opinion. I say you don't have a good enough grasp of it to present it in an understandable way since this "misinterpretation" of your view seems to match pretty well with what you've actually said.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#228

Post by Balgair »

spike021 wrote: post #73

It's become very toxic in baseball. just google "baseball player", "threats", and "gambling" and you'll see what I mean. edit for examples: * https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/red-sox-pitcher-confront... * https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/giants/article/mlb-threat...

NCAA women's sports too.

These young women don't have the money to hire security and are especially vulnerable as a result

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#229

Post by stevenwoo »

throw0101d wrote: post #226
keiferski wrote: post #67

The legalization and popularity of gambling is more than just an immoral activity that has negative societal effects. It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. If hard work or time doesn’t make your life better, then fate is just chance, and you might as well throw your…

> It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Kyla Scanlon (?) coined the term "financial nihilism" to describe this feeling: * https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-financial-nihilism She thinks it's why things like cryptocurrencies/BTC have taken off: it's a chance to 'hit the jackpot', as many folks don't see another way to (financial) success.

This cryptocurrency craze already happened in other places like South Korea where cryptocurrency user base is bigger and more active than the stock market, might be a glimpse at the future in the USA with SK's plummeting birth rate.

Re: Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society

#230

Post by polio »

bdangubic wrote: post #191
keiferski wrote: post #67

The legalization and popularity of gambling is more than just an immoral activity that has negative societal effects. It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better. Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. If hard work or time doesn’t make your life better, then fate is just chance, and you might as well throw your…

> has the possibility of making your rich the core issue is that such possibility does not exist. if you are successful gambler to the point where you are on the path to riches you will be banned from all platforms faster than Jets are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs

In sports betting contexts, you're often just betting against other players, I believe. If they're anything like prediction markets, the exchange isn't going to care how successful you are, as long as you're betting.
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