If people got paid a decent wage, had decent health care, not jacked up rental prices, they wouldn't need to turn to gambling to trust their luck. The house always wins.
As a sports fan who doesn't gamble, I fucking hate it. All it means is that the sportsballs shows literally have an entire episode once a week dedicated to "betting locks." It means that college students get death threats when their team doesn't perform up to expectations. It means every time a ref makes a bad call, they are assumed to have betted on the opposing team.
It means when the underdog upsets the behemoth, instead of celebrating the victory, the degenerates whine on social media about all the money they lost.
It means my favorite team, Georgia, who clawed and scrabbled their way to an SEC championship this weekend, is hated by all the bettors because they are historically incapable of "covering the spread" over the years. They're going to win ugly, in the occasional upset, and ruin all your bets, sorry.
DO NOT BET ON SPORTS. Or bet things like meaningless internet points. On the college football subreddit, if your team loses unexpectedly, you can agree that you will change the icon by your username to a paper bag or to the opposing team for a period of time. Danny Kannel, a sports commentator, made a ridiculous bet last year that if Bo Nix was taken in the top ten of the NFL draft, he would never shave again. Bo Nix was taken #9. His own crew held him to that relatively harmless bet and he had to sport a beard all summer. They let him finally shave when his team, FSU, finally won a game again.
When California enacted the lottery, proponents said that the profits of the Lottery would be pure gravy for the public schools, since it would not be considered in education appropriations. In fact, the motto of the Lottery was "Schools win too!"
Of course, the Legislature immediately assumed Lottery contributions and set the schools budget accordingly. And of course, the Lottery contribution came in below budget, as it has for years (even though the Leg enacted an unsuccessful repair in 2010), impairing school funding.
So now, when you lose on your ticket, remember: Schools lose too!
Gosh, could it be the Economist is just another mouthpiece for Corporate Overlords announcing to their serfs how we need to be living our lives? Maybe the Economist writer had a gambling debt and writing that article was how he paid half (the vig ate it back in days) of the debt he'd run up? Or maybe, the Corporate Overlords are deliberately ruining all the once-good sources of accurate information to ensure nobody has any trust at all any longer?
Avoid the middlemen, C-suiters make excellent eating! Their meat is usually astoundingly tender having never been exposed to serious physical effort in any real quantity, and the older, fatter ones have the kind of marbling one normally sees in Wagyu cows.
We're going to get the true picture of how much US media is under control of the oligarchs these next 4 years, we now have "sanewashing" I expect a new word or saying that expresses how outright corruption isn't.
It's an addiction, and we protect other addicts from being force fed the thing they are addicted to, with age restrictions and limits on buying (in the case of alcohol at least) so we should be protecting gamblers too
Ironically, in Nevada, where there has always been gambling and the casinos are very, *very* powerful, the laws, protections, regulations, and punishments surrounding gambling are also most robust. The gaming commission is in fact the red right hand of God in Las Vegas.
Anyway, those little disclaimers on the ads “if you or someone you know has a gambling problem call…” make me want to puke. Compulsive gambling lights up the same parts of the brain that meth does. The enticement cycle of bust and double-down digs people into holes they cannot get out of, and keeps promising a ladder if they stay in them. This is an industry generating addicts. The figleaf of the “counseling” number is obscene. If you have to put a helpline for overcoming addiction to your product on your ads, you at bare minimum shouldn’t be allowed to advertise.
The first time I tried to use a slot machine in a casino I was bored out of my skull. Years of video games have already worn those paths in my brains smooth and there was nothing new or exciting there. I spent the $5 in starter money the casino had given me on the Total Rewards card for signing up for it and went, "I'm done." Then I used the card for the 10% discount at restaurants and other entertainment and never spent any of my own money gambling in Vegas.
thankfully, it isn’t for everyone (and a study showed that compulsive gamblers and meth users are essentially exclusive groups, as each prefers their own vice to the other’s and all I can say about that is that I want to read the IRB the research group filed): when I lived in Vegas I spent 5$ a year in an off-strip casino to propitiate the local deities, and that was it.
Professional sports bore me and I have little interest in gambling. What really pisses me off is governments treating it like productive economic activity when it’s actually robbing the people who can least afford to lose the money.
The House always wins, if it didn't, there wouldn't be a House. Trump casinos being one notable exception. How do you lose when you own the House? 4D chess?
My inner economist says that the obscene portion of the US economy associated with profit from simply moving money from one pocket to another - as opposed to profit for actual productive activity, you know, like producing eggs - is a leading indicator that the country failed long ago, and we're just waiting for the impact when we hit bottom (Jan 20, 2025, when the CFPB, SEC, Fed, OCC, FDIC and other regulators get turned over to the barbarians at the gate?). Between 25% and 30% of all corporate profits in this country now go to the financial sector*, an unprecedented amount. In a healthy economy the profit in that sector would ideally only be serving as a necessary "lubricant" for all the other profitable productive enterprises, hence wouldn't be commanding that outsize portion of profits. But that it is now hoovering up so much profit represents an economic extortionist structure in which the financiers are essentially looting the productive enterprise sector. Another way to put it is that the 25-30% profits figure represents loan-sharking at the national scale. I often wonder what the nation would look like right now if the pinnacle of employment following a Harvard education was a career that provided things people actually need rather than Wall Street Financier, becoming wealthy simply by virtue of cleverly moving other people's money around to concentrate wealth even more than it already is.
*And, yes, I consider the gambling industry - and state run lotteries - as straddling the financial/entertainment sectors. One not insignificant aspect of the allure of gambling is the reasonable sense that, in fact, all of the US economy is just a structured giant lottery: in a nation that so loves children that it is outlawing abortion, when the pay rates for a child care provider aren't sufficient for them to go to the dentist, isn't it just a lottery that Vivek Ramaswamy is one of the wealthiest people in human history and Elon Musk controls more wealth than many nations? If the whole thing is just a lottery, after all, you're a fool if you don't play.
* And don't even get me started on what the prospects of cryptocurrency are going to do to this.
ever since “fiduciary responsibility,” every company is at heart and in fact a financial products company, with their own shareholders as their clients and customers. the extent of “real” economic activity (ie, production, development, investment in physical plant, all those other Econ 101 things) as a proportion of the overall economy, not to mention GDP, has been on the decline since Reagan and frankly if the crash of 2008 didn’t correct that (editor: it didn’t) then I don’t think anything short of total catastrophe and revolution will.
So glad you have focused on this topic Marcie. I'm in Cape Town, South Africa, and the growth of this scourge is breathtaking - all because Africa has the highest population growth on the planet and the highest rates of movement from rural areas to cities, so it's the future of gambling. A tax on need and hope, rather than stupidity.
The key thing I learned from the blackjack experts is "once you put your chips in for a bet, that money is gone". This discourages you from falling into the "I must get it back" trap. Each bet is an independent event. Maybe you will win this particular bet but over time you won't -- no matter how perfect your strategy. Folks, they don't build muti-billion-dollar palaces based on the thesis that, in the long term, anyone is going to *win*.
If people got paid a decent wage, had decent health care, not jacked up rental prices, they wouldn't need to turn to gambling to trust their luck. The house always wins.
I put a little money in bonds once.... scared the hell out of me that our government would collapse. Good thing they can print money...
As a sports fan who doesn't gamble, I fucking hate it. All it means is that the sportsballs shows literally have an entire episode once a week dedicated to "betting locks." It means that college students get death threats when their team doesn't perform up to expectations. It means every time a ref makes a bad call, they are assumed to have betted on the opposing team.
It means when the underdog upsets the behemoth, instead of celebrating the victory, the degenerates whine on social media about all the money they lost.
It means my favorite team, Georgia, who clawed and scrabbled their way to an SEC championship this weekend, is hated by all the bettors because they are historically incapable of "covering the spread" over the years. They're going to win ugly, in the occasional upset, and ruin all your bets, sorry.
DO NOT BET ON SPORTS. Or bet things like meaningless internet points. On the college football subreddit, if your team loses unexpectedly, you can agree that you will change the icon by your username to a paper bag or to the opposing team for a period of time. Danny Kannel, a sports commentator, made a ridiculous bet last year that if Bo Nix was taken in the top ten of the NFL draft, he would never shave again. Bo Nix was taken #9. His own crew held him to that relatively harmless bet and he had to sport a beard all summer. They let him finally shave when his team, FSU, finally won a game again.
When California enacted the lottery, proponents said that the profits of the Lottery would be pure gravy for the public schools, since it would not be considered in education appropriations. In fact, the motto of the Lottery was "Schools win too!"
Of course, the Legislature immediately assumed Lottery contributions and set the schools budget accordingly. And of course, the Lottery contribution came in below budget, as it has for years (even though the Leg enacted an unsuccessful repair in 2010), impairing school funding.
So now, when you lose on your ticket, remember: Schools lose too!
Gosh, could it be the Economist is just another mouthpiece for Corporate Overlords announcing to their serfs how we need to be living our lives? Maybe the Economist writer had a gambling debt and writing that article was how he paid half (the vig ate it back in days) of the debt he'd run up? Or maybe, the Corporate Overlords are deliberately ruining all the once-good sources of accurate information to ensure nobody has any trust at all any longer?
Avoid the middlemen, C-suiters make excellent eating! Their meat is usually astoundingly tender having never been exposed to serious physical effort in any real quantity, and the older, fatter ones have the kind of marbling one normally sees in Wagyu cows.
We're going to get the true picture of how much US media is under control of the oligarchs these next 4 years, we now have "sanewashing" I expect a new word or saying that expresses how outright corruption isn't.
Every time I see some celeb hawking this shit on TV (looking at you Jamie Foxx and Vanessa Hudgens) it makes me furious.
Kevin Hart didn't do anything for his reputation shilling for sports betting apps.
It's an addiction, and we protect other addicts from being force fed the thing they are addicted to, with age restrictions and limits on buying (in the case of alcohol at least) so we should be protecting gamblers too
I already live in Vegas where they open 7/11s just as a vehicle for gambling machines, and where broke, stranded people are a dime a dozen.
Ironically, in Nevada, where there has always been gambling and the casinos are very, *very* powerful, the laws, protections, regulations, and punishments surrounding gambling are also most robust. The gaming commission is in fact the red right hand of God in Las Vegas.
Anyway, those little disclaimers on the ads “if you or someone you know has a gambling problem call…” make me want to puke. Compulsive gambling lights up the same parts of the brain that meth does. The enticement cycle of bust and double-down digs people into holes they cannot get out of, and keeps promising a ladder if they stay in them. This is an industry generating addicts. The figleaf of the “counseling” number is obscene. If you have to put a helpline for overcoming addiction to your product on your ads, you at bare minimum shouldn’t be allowed to advertise.
The first time I tried to use a slot machine in a casino I was bored out of my skull. Years of video games have already worn those paths in my brains smooth and there was nothing new or exciting there. I spent the $5 in starter money the casino had given me on the Total Rewards card for signing up for it and went, "I'm done." Then I used the card for the 10% discount at restaurants and other entertainment and never spent any of my own money gambling in Vegas.
thankfully, it isn’t for everyone (and a study showed that compulsive gamblers and meth users are essentially exclusive groups, as each prefers their own vice to the other’s and all I can say about that is that I want to read the IRB the research group filed): when I lived in Vegas I spent 5$ a year in an off-strip casino to propitiate the local deities, and that was it.
Also, Nevada has no state lottery. Wonder why...
Professional sports bore me and I have little interest in gambling. What really pisses me off is governments treating it like productive economic activity when it’s actually robbing the people who can least afford to lose the money.
The House always wins, if it didn't, there wouldn't be a House. Trump casinos being one notable exception. How do you lose when you own the House? 4D chess?
Meanwhile, leave it to business supergenius Trump to bankrupt a casino...
You lose if you built the casinos to launder money and give the mafia a place to conduct their illegal drug sales…
You should at least turn a profit so that isn’t so obvious. Still can’t wrap my head around the fact that this loser criminal is POTUS again
Same. What the hell is wrong with people.
My inner economist says that the obscene portion of the US economy associated with profit from simply moving money from one pocket to another - as opposed to profit for actual productive activity, you know, like producing eggs - is a leading indicator that the country failed long ago, and we're just waiting for the impact when we hit bottom (Jan 20, 2025, when the CFPB, SEC, Fed, OCC, FDIC and other regulators get turned over to the barbarians at the gate?). Between 25% and 30% of all corporate profits in this country now go to the financial sector*, an unprecedented amount. In a healthy economy the profit in that sector would ideally only be serving as a necessary "lubricant" for all the other profitable productive enterprises, hence wouldn't be commanding that outsize portion of profits. But that it is now hoovering up so much profit represents an economic extortionist structure in which the financiers are essentially looting the productive enterprise sector. Another way to put it is that the 25-30% profits figure represents loan-sharking at the national scale. I often wonder what the nation would look like right now if the pinnacle of employment following a Harvard education was a career that provided things people actually need rather than Wall Street Financier, becoming wealthy simply by virtue of cleverly moving other people's money around to concentrate wealth even more than it already is.
*And, yes, I consider the gambling industry - and state run lotteries - as straddling the financial/entertainment sectors. One not insignificant aspect of the allure of gambling is the reasonable sense that, in fact, all of the US economy is just a structured giant lottery: in a nation that so loves children that it is outlawing abortion, when the pay rates for a child care provider aren't sufficient for them to go to the dentist, isn't it just a lottery that Vivek Ramaswamy is one of the wealthiest people in human history and Elon Musk controls more wealth than many nations? If the whole thing is just a lottery, after all, you're a fool if you don't play.
* And don't even get me started on what the prospects of cryptocurrency are going to do to this.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
ever since “fiduciary responsibility,” every company is at heart and in fact a financial products company, with their own shareholders as their clients and customers. the extent of “real” economic activity (ie, production, development, investment in physical plant, all those other Econ 101 things) as a proportion of the overall economy, not to mention GDP, has been on the decline since Reagan and frankly if the crash of 2008 didn’t correct that (editor: it didn’t) then I don’t think anything short of total catastrophe and revolution will.
Excellent take. The financial sector has become the tail wagging the dog of the economy.
It’s Corporate responsibility to their shareholders that requires them to try to bankrupt everyone. Watch any commercials on live television.
So glad you have focused on this topic Marcie. I'm in Cape Town, South Africa, and the growth of this scourge is breathtaking - all because Africa has the highest population growth on the planet and the highest rates of movement from rural areas to cities, so it's the future of gambling. A tax on need and hope, rather than stupidity.
It really is a tax on stupidity
The key thing I learned from the blackjack experts is "once you put your chips in for a bet, that money is gone". This discourages you from falling into the "I must get it back" trap. Each bet is an independent event. Maybe you will win this particular bet but over time you won't -- no matter how perfect your strategy. Folks, they don't build muti-billion-dollar palaces based on the thesis that, in the long term, anyone is going to *win*.