Online sports betting is HUGE with younger "legal" betters. Their bets might be smaller now but that's only because of their financial status. As income increases so will the size of their bets and the breadth of what they will bet on. So begins their lifelong romance with online betting. The apps are counting on a long and profitable romance. Gone are the days of just watching your fav teams for the joy of the sport.
The incentive of governments to encourage gambling is terrible and immoral. The costs to society are going to be expensive. Sam tells us a bit of what it cost his family.
The lottery is another example of the immorality of gambling. It is a disgrace that the rationale is that the revenue is set aside for education (at least it used to be).
During the televising of the Kentucky Derby the pushing of gambling was blatant. The announcers gave their picks. Celebrities gave their picks. By the way, almost all of these picks were wrong. The advertiser for a gambling app had a gimmick that if your bet came in second or third you got your money back. Sounds good.
The good thing about gambling is that it makes watching a boring event exciting (then painful....you can't have everything.)
My idea is that now that this is the way, we should expand it to gambling about other things. The weather, for a start. I'll give you 100 to 1 it won't snow on Mother's Day. The over under for tomorrow's high and low temperature. We can get creative here. We'll make it worthwhile getting up in the morning.
BTW, Sam, do you see a relationship between legalizing weed and legalizing gambling? If so will we soon see legalizing drugs for athletes? Will we see legal gambling in the Olympics?
Horse racing is and always has been solely about betting. I’m not so concerned about that. I worry more about gambling corrupting the team sports I love to watch for the fun of it.
I can see how legalizing weed could prompt and enable more widespread abuse of the drug, but as long as cigarettes and alcohol are legal, I can’t condone making pot—a far less destructive drug—being illegal.
Phil Mushnick has devoted his column to this many times. I believe it was this season that players on a bad Temple team were tanking. I worked at John Dewey HS in the late '70s. One teacher claimed an official was crooked. He was right on every game except one that ended on a fluke play. Goodell is the most overpaid person ever, and one of the biggest phonies. All of your concerns are valid, but I'm one of these guys who believe in freedom, which includes the freedom to be stupid with money. I hate the wokeness in sports a lot more than the gambling. That has tainted them to the point I will not allow myself to watch.
I get your last point, Vic. But beyond my concerns about facilitating the spread of gambling addiction, I worry even more about gambling destroying the credibility of sports and ruining the games I love to watch for the pure fun of it.
If we give people the freedom to do whatever they want with their money I propose that we teach smart gambling in schools, but not how to avoid the hazards of gambling addiction, but how to understand point spreads, odds, etc. How to find the opportunities in different bets.
If children began to make bets in school using play money, they would quickly learn either that they are good at it and can make money or that they are constant losers and should avoid it. The mystic would be removed. Schools already have these kinds of mock stock trading lessons.
I'm going to take this a step further and suggest that a way to turn kids off smoking is to give them a cigarette when they are very young....yuck...how about make them have some booze in kindergarten and they'll quickly learn it's yuckyness and not glamorous...There are many opportunities to have kids learn by mistakes and perhaps we should take advantage of it (if your going, "DK can't be serious" your right. I'm not totally convinced I've come up with a smart wayt to discourage drinking and smoking, but I am 2/3 serious about teaching how to be a smart gambler).
I had a 7th grade math teacher who used baseball stats to teach us math.... The more accessible academic subjects are, the more likely kids will pay attention and learn because they see it as practical and not useless......
Online sports betting is HUGE with younger "legal" betters. Their bets might be smaller now but that's only because of their financial status. As income increases so will the size of their bets and the breadth of what they will bet on. So begins their lifelong romance with online betting. The apps are counting on a long and profitable romance. Gone are the days of just watching your fav teams for the joy of the sport.
It's really disheartening. And think of all the kids being brainwashed by the relentless ads, growing up thinking of betting as just part of the game.
The incentive of governments to encourage gambling is terrible and immoral. The costs to society are going to be expensive. Sam tells us a bit of what it cost his family.
The lottery is another example of the immorality of gambling. It is a disgrace that the rationale is that the revenue is set aside for education (at least it used to be).
During the televising of the Kentucky Derby the pushing of gambling was blatant. The announcers gave their picks. Celebrities gave their picks. By the way, almost all of these picks were wrong. The advertiser for a gambling app had a gimmick that if your bet came in second or third you got your money back. Sounds good.
The good thing about gambling is that it makes watching a boring event exciting (then painful....you can't have everything.)
My idea is that now that this is the way, we should expand it to gambling about other things. The weather, for a start. I'll give you 100 to 1 it won't snow on Mother's Day. The over under for tomorrow's high and low temperature. We can get creative here. We'll make it worthwhile getting up in the morning.
BTW, Sam, do you see a relationship between legalizing weed and legalizing gambling? If so will we soon see legalizing drugs for athletes? Will we see legal gambling in the Olympics?
I don’t see why betting on the Olympics should be singled out, especially with pros taking part.
Horse racing is and always has been solely about betting. I’m not so concerned about that. I worry more about gambling corrupting the team sports I love to watch for the fun of it.
I can see how legalizing weed could prompt and enable more widespread abuse of the drug, but as long as cigarettes and alcohol are legal, I can’t condone making pot—a far less destructive drug—being illegal.
Phil Mushnick has devoted his column to this many times. I believe it was this season that players on a bad Temple team were tanking. I worked at John Dewey HS in the late '70s. One teacher claimed an official was crooked. He was right on every game except one that ended on a fluke play. Goodell is the most overpaid person ever, and one of the biggest phonies. All of your concerns are valid, but I'm one of these guys who believe in freedom, which includes the freedom to be stupid with money. I hate the wokeness in sports a lot more than the gambling. That has tainted them to the point I will not allow myself to watch.
I get your last point, Vic. But beyond my concerns about facilitating the spread of gambling addiction, I worry even more about gambling destroying the credibility of sports and ruining the games I love to watch for the pure fun of it.
If we give people the freedom to do whatever they want with their money I propose that we teach smart gambling in schools, but not how to avoid the hazards of gambling addiction, but how to understand point spreads, odds, etc. How to find the opportunities in different bets.
If children began to make bets in school using play money, they would quickly learn either that they are good at it and can make money or that they are constant losers and should avoid it. The mystic would be removed. Schools already have these kinds of mock stock trading lessons.
I'm going to take this a step further and suggest that a way to turn kids off smoking is to give them a cigarette when they are very young....yuck...how about make them have some booze in kindergarten and they'll quickly learn it's yuckyness and not glamorous...There are many opportunities to have kids learn by mistakes and perhaps we should take advantage of it (if your going, "DK can't be serious" your right. I'm not totally convinced I've come up with a smart wayt to discourage drinking and smoking, but I am 2/3 serious about teaching how to be a smart gambler).
Upon further thought, there is plenty of practical math to be learned in gambling.
I had a 7th grade math teacher who used baseball stats to teach us math.... The more accessible academic subjects are, the more likely kids will pay attention and learn because they see it as practical and not useless......