I don't gamble, but I am a sports fan. My experience is that sports gambling, especially in its current invasive, ubiquitous form, makes me doubt the honesty of everyone involved, from the owners...
I don't gamble, but I am a sports fan. My experience is that sports gambling, especially in its current invasive, ubiquitous form, makes me doubt the honesty of everyone involved, from the owners and sportscasters to the umpires and players. It makes the game feel cheap. I hate it.
I completely agree. What is the point if the fix is in? It cheapens things and has ruined the experience of watching sports. The Amazon hockey broadcast has been a breathe of fresh air without all...
I completely agree. What is the point if the fix is in? It cheapens things and has ruined the experience of watching sports.
The Amazon hockey broadcast has been a breathe of fresh air without all the sports betting garbage, although I imagine that's only a matter of time.
I voted to legalize gambling in my state years ago because I thought, "I should be allowed to bet on a sports game if I want to, why not?" I did it a few times, lost a couple hundred bucks, and...
I voted to legalize gambling in my state years ago because I thought, "I should be allowed to bet on a sports game if I want to, why not?" I did it a few times, lost a couple hundred bucks, and never did it again. I thought things were basically fine.
Then I read an article in Men's Health that put into perspective that things are very much NOT fine. The survey results especially made me reconsider my position. People spend a LOT of money that they could spend more wisely elsewhere.
Makes me wonder how much legalized sports gambling is affecting people who complain about the economy and inflation.
You know what.... this makes a lot of sense. Earlier this year I worked on a project where I looked at low-skill wages and cost of living all around the US. The goal was to understand what an...
Makes me wonder how much legalized sports gambling is affecting people who complain about the economy and inflation.
You know what.... this makes a lot of sense.
Earlier this year I worked on a project where I looked at low-skill wages and cost of living all around the US. The goal was to understand what an annual budget and quality of life could look like for people making between $18-$24/hr. I created budgets for individuals and couples with a child. A lot of the data came from government sources, but I also checked it myself. Shopping for housing, vehicle, etc.
As expected, having a child was the most difficult situation to budget. Nothing new there.
But I was kind of surprised looking at the budgets. It really wasn't too difficult to budget out a decent place to live, vehicle, fund some hobbies/travel and put away some savings (I computed time to save a down payment for a local house in these budgets).
I would not be surprised if sports gambling has thrown off a lot of people's perception of costs.
Wasn't that bad to budget out a decent place to live? Damn, I'd love to see where you think low-income workers can rent or buy within a reasonable budget in most of the USA. In most places I've...
Wasn't that bad to budget out a decent place to live? Damn, I'd love to see where you think low-income workers can rent or buy within a reasonable budget in most of the USA. In most places I've lived (even the 'cheap' places), rent is easily 1500/mo for an individual at this point, a vehicle is required, and vehicle costs add up very fast.
I don't think we're talking about the same kinds of places. I definitely saw a squeeze around more urba areas, but my business doesn't really operate in places like that. I'm talking about places...
I don't think we're talking about the same kinds of places. I definitely saw a squeeze around more urba areas, but my business doesn't really operate in places like that. I'm talking about places like Macon, Missouri. And in those situations finding housing was more difficult than affording housing.
Likely. Gambling and playing the lottery is often associated with private money problems and even economic downturn. People buy hope and get an addiction in return. Add in that being poor has...
Likely. Gambling and playing the lottery is often associated with private money problems and even economic downturn. People buy hope and get an addiction in return. Add in that being poor has people spend their money on frivolous things like no other because you may as well spend it before it's taken as debt collection anyway, and you have a very vulnerable group of people willing to spend a lot for that one chance of escape.
It's easy to see how the business model is made for preying on people. Even if I personally think I should be able to gamble if I'd so choose, I'm not the person we regulate this business for and I'd rather help those people than occasionally have my vice.
From the article: Here's a quote from one of the papers he cites: Back to the article:
From the article:
The short answer is that it is clear from studies and from what we see with our eyes that ubiquitous sports gambling on mobile phones, and media aggressively pushing wagering, is mostly predation on people who suffer from addictive behaviors.
That predation, due to the costs of customer acquisition and retention and the regulations involved, involves pushing upon them terrible products offered at terrible prices, pushed throughout the sports ecosystem and via smartphones onto highly vulnerable people.
Here's a quote from one of the papers he cites:
several measures of excessive debt increase substantially. We find a roughly 28% increase in bankruptcies and an 8% increase in debt transferred to debt collectors. Similarly, auto loan delinquencies increase substantially as does use of debt consolidation loans.
Interestingly, we find that banks restrict access to credit on average in affected states. Credit card limits decrease and the ratio of secured to unsecured loans increases. After three years post-legalization we actually find a decrease in credit card delinquencies as a result.
Back to the article:
Putting gambling in your pocket makes the temptation to gamble ever-present. Even for those who can resist it, that is a not so cheap mental tax to pay, and likely to result in the occasional impulse bet, even without the constant notifications. First hit’s free. Constant offers that adjust to your responses, to get you to keep coming back.
Now consider that at least several percent of people have an acute gambling addiction or vulnerability. For them, this is like an alcoholic being forced to carry a flask around in their pocket 24/7, while talk of what alcohol to choose and how good it would be to use that flask right now gets constantly woven into all their entertainment, and they by default get notifications asking if now is a good time for a beer. You can have the apps back up and running within a minute, even if you delete them.
It was plausible that this was an acceptable situation, that people could mostly handle that kind of temptation. We have now run the experiment, and it is clear that too many of them cannot.
I don't gamble, but I am a sports fan. My experience is that sports gambling, especially in its current invasive, ubiquitous form, makes me doubt the honesty of everyone involved, from the owners and sportscasters to the umpires and players. It makes the game feel cheap. I hate it.
I completely agree. What is the point if the fix is in? It cheapens things and has ruined the experience of watching sports.
The Amazon hockey broadcast has been a breathe of fresh air without all the sports betting garbage, although I imagine that's only a matter of time.
I voted to legalize gambling in my state years ago because I thought, "I should be allowed to bet on a sports game if I want to, why not?" I did it a few times, lost a couple hundred bucks, and never did it again. I thought things were basically fine.
Then I read an article in Men's Health that put into perspective that things are very much NOT fine. The survey results especially made me reconsider my position. People spend a LOT of money that they could spend more wisely elsewhere.
Makes me wonder how much legalized sports gambling is affecting people who complain about the economy and inflation.
You know what.... this makes a lot of sense.
Earlier this year I worked on a project where I looked at low-skill wages and cost of living all around the US. The goal was to understand what an annual budget and quality of life could look like for people making between $18-$24/hr. I created budgets for individuals and couples with a child. A lot of the data came from government sources, but I also checked it myself. Shopping for housing, vehicle, etc.
As expected, having a child was the most difficult situation to budget. Nothing new there.
But I was kind of surprised looking at the budgets. It really wasn't too difficult to budget out a decent place to live, vehicle, fund some hobbies/travel and put away some savings (I computed time to save a down payment for a local house in these budgets).
I would not be surprised if sports gambling has thrown off a lot of people's perception of costs.
Wasn't that bad to budget out a decent place to live? Damn, I'd love to see where you think low-income workers can rent or buy within a reasonable budget in most of the USA. In most places I've lived (even the 'cheap' places), rent is easily 1500/mo for an individual at this point, a vehicle is required, and vehicle costs add up very fast.
I don't think we're talking about the same kinds of places. I definitely saw a squeeze around more urba areas, but my business doesn't really operate in places like that. I'm talking about places like Macon, Missouri. And in those situations finding housing was more difficult than affording housing.
Very fair, not many places to rent in much of the country for sure. Thanks for the answer!
Likely. Gambling and playing the lottery is often associated with private money problems and even economic downturn. People buy hope and get an addiction in return. Add in that being poor has people spend their money on frivolous things like no other because you may as well spend it before it's taken as debt collection anyway, and you have a very vulnerable group of people willing to spend a lot for that one chance of escape.
It's easy to see how the business model is made for preying on people. Even if I personally think I should be able to gamble if I'd so choose, I'm not the person we regulate this business for and I'd rather help those people than occasionally have my vice.
From the article:
Here's a quote from one of the papers he cites:
Back to the article: