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

pewresearch.org

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

#3

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

Because the outcomes and demographics for sports betting vs the other two show different aggregate money movements and we make judgements about what we consider to be acceptably and unacceptably informed and consenting risk accepting behavior.

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

#4

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

The odds are manipulated to give the gambling company the advantage. Big winners are identified and dropped. It is designed to drain money from gamblers.

Stocks are not that, in general. A particular fraudulent investment could be that. Crypto investment comes to mind.

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

#5

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

I think this is a good question, I’m sorry you’re being downvoted.

I think the difference is that buying/betting on a house or stocks are not a zero-sum game. It is feasible for everyone to buy a house, all the houses to increase in real-world value, and everyone benefit. Likewise with stocks. And on top of that effect, the bets being made are useful for society at large to make better plans, because they are a measure of society’s best predictions. Sports betting on the other hand, is truly zero-sum (although I think you could make an argument that it's actually worse than zero sum). Additionally, it is not useful for society to predict which team will win some set of games. This is just wasted effort on a curiosity. There’s nothing wrong with that effort as entertainment, but it is bad to incentivize our minds to take up sports betting, as opposed to say finance, engineering, art, or anything productive.

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

#6

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

Stocks have positive expected returns: the risk premium. Sports bets have negative expected returns in aggregate and if you are good enough to only bet the ones you can spot with positive expected returns they ban you from the platform.

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

#7
post #4

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

The odds are manipulated to give the gambling company the advantage. Big winners are identified and dropped. It is designed to drain money from gamblers. Stocks are not that, in general. A particular fraudulent investment could be that. Crypto investment comes to mind.

I’m not sure what you mean by odds being manipulated. The bookmaker will generally adjust odds to where the money is being placed. Example, in American football if a team opens up as a 7 point favorite and betters put more money on the underdog than the favorite, the line gets smaller so more will take the favorite. Generally the opening line is what the book will think half the betters are willing to place on the favorite, and half on the underdog. Doesn’t always work out that way which is why you see lines move.

Also not sure what you mean by winners

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

#8

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

I think this is a good question, I’m sorry you’re being downvoted. I think the difference is that buying/betting on a house or stocks are not a zero-sum game. It is feasible for everyone to buy a house, all the houses to increase in real-world value, and everyone benefit. Likewise with stocks. And on top of that effect, the bets being made are useful for society at large to make better plans, because they are a measu…

Options markets are zero sum.

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

#9
post #4

Why is it any different than betting on the stock market? Buying a house is also a bet. Even if Americans view it as a bad thing, it should be allowed.

The odds are manipulated to give the gambling company the advantage. Big winners are identified and dropped. It is designed to drain money from gamblers. Stocks are not that, in general. A particular fraudulent investment could be that. Crypto investment comes to mind.

You don’t need to even win to get banned (limited from making bets larger than a couple of dollars). You just need to make bets that look too smart and might result you winning in the future.

https://youtu.be/XZvXWVztJoY?t=667

Sports betting is just looking for chumps that have little to no chance of winning.

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

#10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The odds are manipulated to give the gambling company the advantage. Big winners are identified and dropped. It is designed to drain money from gamblers. Stocks are not that, in general. A particular fraudulent investment could be that. Crypto investment comes to mind.

I’m not sure what you mean by odds being manipulated. The bookmaker will generally adjust odds to where the money is being placed. Example, in American football if a team opens up as a 7 point favorite and betters put more money on the underdog than the favorite, the line gets smaller so more will take the favorite. Generally the opening line is what the book will think half the betters are willing to place on the fa…

Listen to season 4 of Michael Lewis' podcast. He covers the downsides in detail.

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/against-the-rules

I think this is the ep that gets into the most detail, but I haven't read the transcript.

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/against-the-rules/vegas-spor...

IIRC, if you're too professional or too lucky, the betting apps will restrict you and then lock you out. They only want the dumb money playing.

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