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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

#361

Post by byronic »

ls612 wrote: post #329
shusaku wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gambling thrives in contexts where a ladder to success doesn’t exist or is perceived as not existing. This is a neat moral message… but is it really true? Gambling is addictive, so the reality might be that even without such deep social problems you get similar levels

Gambling is addictive for some , in the same way that alcohol is addictive for some, yet blanket alcohol prohibition is not considered a great idea in hindsight.

I don't know how we could put limits on gambling that would make sense, though. There's a huge difference in bets that I used to make (which were all black-market sports bets, usually on 'game winner' or over/under) ~ once a week during the NFL season vs. the shit going on with FanDuel and all these phone-based gamified services. And that stuff absolutely encourages you to make bets that you can't afford and can easily turn into a problem even for someone who isn't 'addicted' per se -- it's like the predatory loot box model from video games.

TLDR I don't know how you write a law that would put hard and fast limits on what can be bet on and how much an individual is allowed to bet during a week in a way that would be palatable to the companies. I'm in favor of the blanket ban at this point; the black market for betting has always existed and it was better than the current setup.

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

#362

Post by howard941 »

watwut wrote: post #79
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal gambling debt is individual unless credited to a joint account no?

In marriage, stuff you acquire during marriage is "common" no matter which accout you used. The same applies to debt. (Pre existing assets and debts are purely yours). The common stuff then splits half half unless there was prenup or something.

This very much varies state-by-state (ignoring prenups and emergency med treatment as edge cases). In my marriage and state (FL) debts incurred by me remain my own. Wifey owes none of it. Compare with states that have community property or purchases made as tenants by the entirety.

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

#363

Post by mrisoli »

angarg12 wrote: post #16

I left my home country over 10 years ago, and ever since I've travelled back once every 1 or 2 years. Since 4-5 years ago I started to notice these betting houses cropping up where my family and friends live. They are impossible to miss, with big pictures of different sports and no windows. The most important thing to notice is where these place are and are not. They proliferate in working class and less well off nei…

I also left my home country about a decade ago.

I was already expecting a lot of gambling site ads, they took over the soccer tournament sponsorships almost completely anyway.

But what I found out when I came back in the last 3-4 years 100% shocked me. It wasn't just TV and soccer teams, I saw gambling ads in napkin holders at some restaurants, bus stops. I went to get a haircut and the barbershop had TV with gambling ads adorning their frames.

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

#365

Post by bruce511 »

idopmstuff wrote: post #349
bruce511 wrote: post #13

Is it bad for society? It's certainly bad for individuals, and by extension their families. I guess if it scales up such that a serious chunk of society is affected, then yes its bad for society. Let's start with the obvious- in all forms of gambling the gamblers make a net loss. The games are hosted by very sophisticated companies, that have better mathematicians, and make money. $x is pumped into the system by the…

> Let's start with the obvious- in all forms of gambling the gamblers make a net loss. The games are hosted by very sophisticated companies, that have better mathematicians, and make money. > $x is pumped into the system by the punters, $y is extracted, $z is returned. The 'house' is the only winner. This is incorrect, specifically with regard to sports betting. Sports betting and poker are both winnable games. Most…

Net loss means that if you add all the players together, the losses exceed the winnings.

Yes some individuals win (at least occasionally.) But as a group it's always a net loss (because the house takes a cut.)

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

#366

Post by DiscourseFan »

Spooky23 wrote: post #280
DiscourseFan wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean hard work has never made anyone wealthy, it usually makes someone else wealthy. What makes you wealthy is being good at negotiation and intepersonal skills, family connections, and luck. And, of course, a touch or genius—there’s a reason that some of the wealthiest people in tech are also sometimes the most brilliant. Somebody who figures out and properly leverages a labor saving technique, even if it seems ob…

I disagree. What a high level professional gambler is doing is hard work. Hard work doesn't make you rich, but it's part of the things that you need to prosper. I'm no inspirational poster child, but hard work, building a network, doing good things for people were all essential to my long term success. I didn't have the benefit of familial connections, but that helps too. There's a saying that you make your own luck,…

I agree that hard work is often a pre-requisite for being successful, but it is not key to being successful by any means. Like I wouldn't agree with your definition because most people wouldn't claim that, say, getting into bitcoin early and then working like 10 hours a week max trading and setting up mining rigs is "hard work," even if it made some people extremely wealthy, just because they got on the trend early.

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

#367

Post by eep_social »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #97
tokioyoyo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It could be banned. Would that stop it? Probably not. Was not that big of a thing 15 years ago. The goal of a ban is not to reduce the consumption to 0, but try to lower it a significant amount. Although, since people are generally aware of it and participated in it, it might not be that easy to go back to beforetimes.

Yes, gambling was huge in the US before, you just didn't know about it. Illegal gambling market in the US was massive because you could go offshore. One of the issues with offshore providers is no taxes, no harm prevention, etc. Legalization allows you to generate tax revenue and implement harm prevention effectively for the very small amount of users that are gambling addicts (if you compare to some of the things th…

> weed, for example, is inherently addictive, gambling is not

Any science on this? That’s a wild statement vs my priors.

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

#368

Post by AfterHIA »

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…

Bingo!

Pun intended.

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

#370

Post by xnx »

angarg12 wrote: post #16

I left my home country over 10 years ago, and ever since I've travelled back once every 1 or 2 years. Since 4-5 years ago I started to notice these betting houses cropping up where my family and friends live. They are impossible to miss, with big pictures of different sports and no windows. The most important thing to notice is where these place are and are not. They proliferate in working class and less well off nei…

Aren't betting houses antiquated now? I assumed even senior citizen would be betting through their phones.

Being able to gamble privately, 24/7, with all the psychological/engagement "optimizations" is even more insidious.

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