David_j_roth: Like many, I was swayed by the initial arguments that jamming all pro and college sports full of gambling shit wouldn't lead to embarrassing and preventable scandals and worse, but in retrospect this isn't as convincing as I remember.

Like many, I was swayed by the initial arguments that jamming all pro and college sports full of gambling shit wouldn't lead to embarrassing and preventable scandals and worse, but in retrospect this isn't as convincing as I remember.

i feel like “they’re adults, they should make responsible decisions and know when to stop” should apply double to the people jamming real-time gambling onto every screen that displays sports. maybe they need a hotline they can call. Immiserators Anonymous

Yeah I guess my big takeaway here is "cool it."

Tangentially, if my whole thing was being a football expert I’d be extremely annoyed at being forced to do picks and inevitably go 46% against the spread.

anyone in the gambling industry who says anything of this sort you should go down on your List O'Wronguns immediately and for life. they are very aware of the relationship between their profitability and a small proportion of problem users, and the regulatory line they have to walk

100 dollars worth of free bets for my first bet of $5? I'm 95 dollars up, David! How do these stupid companies even stay in business, much less produce commercials with Kevin Hart, the funniest man on Earth? Oh.

Sports betting industry posts record $11B in 2023 revenue - ESPNwww.espn.com The American Gaming Association reported Tuesday a record $10.92 billion in 2023 for the sports betting industry, up 44.5% from 2022.

The most insidious thing about it is they know the vast majority of their money comes from a small percentage of users. All of the promotional stuff you see has been reverse engineered to explicitly produce problem gamblers.

My favorite thing is every single yakking shithead on ESPN sports radio is now offering mandated prop bets, like your takes are all vanilla nonsense but sure I'll risk my money based on your flipping a coin beforehand, Mike Greenberg.

It’s unbearable, but as I understand it probably by design that it’s almost always present. It’s the same reason that casinos don’t have clocks or windows.

My old man complaint is that I’m being slowly driven mad by TV people either not knowing or pretending to not know how point spreads are created. It’s designed to get equal money on both sides! It’s 100% based on where they think public perception is!

I hate it Burn it with fire 🔥

All of this bullshit is in pursuit of tapping unexplored markets for the enrichment of a few. “Oh the market is saturated in other area? Let’s just make legal this other thing so we can all rake it in while saddling the poor saps with crippling debt and addiction.”

Isn’t Jerry Jones a large stake holder in Draft Kings?

we can just argue against this one vaccine and there won’t be any consequences. it will be fine! stop being such a worrywart!

Whoever wrote that original Onion article deserves a Pulitzer

It has always been obvious how legalized sports gambling would negatively affect many facets of society, with no benefit, but the thing I hate about it is the ensuing alienation I feel from sports as a non-gambler. It’s like I’m the goddamn weirdo because I root for a team I have no money on.

There goes that sweet, sweet Bareback Sports sponsorship.

*laughs in black sox scandal*

A trading card featuring the gamblers themselves

This Ohtani Translator story is - even without the timing of coinciding with opening day in Asia - WILD, but JFC this story dropping in this context is jaw dropping

What story?

Yeah I am definitely out of the loop on this one.

www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

Dodgers fire Shohei Ohtani's interpreter amid allegation of 'massive theft' - ESPNwww.espn.com The interpreter for the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani was fired Wednesday after questions surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani's bank account to a bookmaking operation set off...

Oh damn, that's a wild one.

The process of extracting of any shred of wealth possessed by any ordinary person continues space.

Same reason we see ads on goddamn uniforms now.

I can’t believe that putting dozens of disclaimers and gambling addiction websites and help lines in the ads didn’t prevent this

It had to be connected to Ohtani. It *had* to be. Rothstein fixed the World Series, he didn't fix some random Browns-Tigers game

rob manfred's memoir (publication date tba): "they left me no choice, i had to do what was in the best interest of baseball: signing up multiple official sports betting partners. and while we mourned the loss of our cigarette advertisers, it left plenty of blank space in stadiums for gambling ads."

In addition to all the very real problems, it all feels incredibly tacky. I guess I shouldn’t expect better from professional sports, but come on.

“Not really”

Damn, motherfuckers act like they forgot about Pete Rose

Are you aware there are allegations Rose raped a minor in the 70s?

Goddamn.

Nothing will go wrong because everything is going to be fine is a very persuasive argument

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