Sports gambling is just terrible for everyone except the bloodsuckers that run it. Sports teams don't want it because it incentivizes cheating / rigging games. Personal bankruptcy and domestic abuse skyrocket when people lose money they can't afford to lose. Now the apps feed an unstable addiction literally all day long.

Thanks to the Supreme Court for pulling a bullshit ruling out of their collective asses in 2018 that makes everything worse for average Americans.

Shit, I don't even gamble and I'm just sick of their logos and ads all over every thing when I watch a game. Used to be they had "Gambling Prohibited" up around the stadium, now they may as well own the teams.

Sports teams don’t want it because it incentivizes cheating / rigging games.

this isn't true generally speaking. The reasoning they give is that gambling has always been there to incentivize cheating/rigging, but at least now it's out in the open and easier to track. This is a quote from the commissioner of the NBA after an incident last year:

“I mean, this is not new that there’s unsavory behavior, even illegal behavior, around sports betting,” Silver said. “I guess my point is that to the extent it’s going to exist, if you have a regulated environment, you’re going to have a better chance of detecting it than you would if all the bets were placed illegally.”

Sports leagues are tripping over themselves expanding into Las Vegas. Some team owners have their own sportsbooks right in the stadium, for example ted leonsis in DC. The owners of the Dallas Mavericks own the Sands casinos and have been spending millions lobbying to legalize gambling in Texas. (edit: I see their efforts recently failed, but the point is they clearly want gambling.)

Some individual players have spoken out against sports betting and if they were the majority they could take it up as an issue in collective bargaining. NBA players did in the last CBA, except they went in the opposite direction; they negotiated for the ability to endorse and invest in gambling companies themselves. So clearly the majority of players are happy to take bigger contracts, endorsements, etc despite the nuisance it causes them.

and to be clear I agree it's awful, i am just explaining how i observed them deal with the issue over the last 7 years or whatever. I actually recently stopped watching sports, and sports betting was a contributing factor to that decision.

So, we know that's true in New York, but what about submerging a young man's head in, say, Washington State? 🧐

The difference is that black market gambling is distributed. It means that there are fewer protections for people who engage in it but more people profiting from it.

But legalization just means most of the action is controlled by a handful of corporations, and the government is involved in protecting the flow of money, of which they get a cut.

There's also the issue of volume, more betting volume could mean more opportunity for corruption. I don't have numbers but i'm guessing there is a lot more betting now that it's legal, with ads and sponsorships constantly in your face, and easily accessible with phone apps and sportsbooks. But i have not seen any officially expressed concern about that aspect from any league representatives, only spin that it's better legalized and regulated.

The overall point is that sports leagues definitely do want sports betting. more engagement, ad sales, endorsements, and they can even get in on the action directly by ownership or investments.

Because the trend was detected via New York's helpline.

Australian millennial checking in, when I was young 'nobody' my age made bets on sports, like maybe 5% of the population. Gambling ads were heavily regulated as were gaming organizations.

The gambling ads for tipping and online betting and gambling apps have ramped up and online gambling was allowed to flourish with relaxed regulations. Taking us to the current state of affairs where they are unavoidable, and gambling companies are major sponsors of all our sports events.

The current youth now have a huge problem with gambling.

‘A massive public health problem’: Australian children as young as 10 are hooked on gambling

Exclusive: A Guardian Australia investigation has found an increase in the number of young people seeking help for problem gambling, with calls for urgent action

the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)

Push back hard if you can on mobile gambling in your neck of the woods, because once the government gets addicted to the revenue and the 'corporate events' they are very disinterested in reeling it back.

"large" is relative.

Unless you're incredibly thorough about totally cleaning out the vault, ATM, every teller drawer, etc. you're probably not gonna be able to get more than a few 10s of thousands if you're lucky

But even a few thousand, or hell, even a couple hundred could be huge for a lot of people.

That might be rent for a month or a couple of months when they're really struggling, what they need to keep their car from getting repo'd so they can get to their job, pay for some badly needed home repairs, medications, etc.

I'm not struggling, but I'm not exactly doing great either, a couple extra thousand bucks on-hand would be amazing for me, and for some people it could be literally life-changing (even life-saving)

Oh, just in New York? Whew, I'm safe then.

/s

Online sports betting through apps on your phone is just yet another example of everything sliding toward degeneracy

This is tough for me because I'm conflicted. On the whole, I agree this (mobile and just in your face gambling everywhere) is a net negative for society.

I have played fantasy sports for twenty five years, daily fantasy sports for almost eleven years, horse racing betting for ten years, and now sports betting for about two years. They're hobbies I enjoy and have fun spending time on. I've also been fortunate enough to make decent money over the years, not enough to live off of but it's paid for a few vacations and other luxuries with plenty still left in my accounts.

I would dislike not being able to enjoy my hobby and the money that comes with it though. Maybe a better way to handle this would be heavy regulation on advertisements?

Are these so-called experts supposed to have me believe that gambling apps designed to get people addicted to their gambling app might be a gateway to gambling addiction?

The amount of political capital it takes to restrict capitalism is huge. We had restrictions on sports betting. Now that they've been removed, billionaires can spend money on lobbyists and continue to exploit people ruining their lives through addiction.

I agree with most of what you're saying, but I don't think gambling should be illegal. That's the tough thing.

"regulated" doing a lot of heavy lifting

So gambling is a gateway to gambling? Brilliant analysis there, healthbeat.org

Australian xiellenial here, 12 years ago I taught at tafe and I reckon about half the class was on gambling apps. I was shocked as none of my peers use them AFAIK.

'Degeneracy' is just a dogwhistle

Same energy

If you make it illegal, they'll just run back to a tax haven like so many are already doing, but at least people will be less likely to find them. If you tax them to hell, they'll also run to a tax haven and do money laundering+tax evasion. Gambling companies are lose-lose-win for people-govts-themselves.