After years of bribery, I mean lobbying, a bunch of states legalized sports gambling. That includes my home state of Massachusetts, where sports gambling apps recently launched. Now wherever I go, I’m inundated with gambling ads. They play every other ad on sports radio. I see them on TV and on websites. There’s even a sports gambling billboard that I see on the way home from work. These aren’t plain ads either- A list celebrities and athletes must love gambling! Even David Ortiz (career earnings $155 million) loves gambling so much or is hurting so much for money that he’s featured prominently in Draft Kings ads. In either case, Ortiz and his fellow spokesmen are perfectly fine with encouraging their fans to lose money. Because 99% of regular gamblers are going to lose in the long run- gambling companies wouldn’t exist otherwise!
One ploy that the gambling companies use is the “free bet.” The wager is something silly, like “will this basketball team score a point?” You have to bet a small amount- say $10- and you win “$200.” That’s in quotes because of course you don’t win 200 real dollars. You win $200 in free promotional bets that you can’t withdraw. It’s not really money, it’s a trick to get you to keep betting. I don’t have any stats, but I’m sure a good percentage of people keep betting until the promotional “money” is gone and then deposit real money to gamble with. I don’t have statistics in front of me, but the companies are smart. They wouldn’t run these promotions if they didn’t work. And for a minute I thought it would be fun to take advantage of one of these offers. After all, I could pull out my $10 and just play with the fake money during March Madness. But the idea looked worse the more I thought about it. And ultimately I decided not to do it.
Sports Gambling and Casinos Can be Fun- and Relatively Harmless
When I became old enough to gamble, multiple people gave me the sensible advice that all wise mentors give. They said “When you go to a casino, pick an amount of money that you’re willing to lose before you arrive. Consider that money as what you’re spending for entertainment.” You can read similar advice all over the internet because it’s how sensible people treat gambling- as entertainment. Casinos are designed to be an expensive night out, with dinner, games of chance (with the odds stacked against you), and overpriced drinks. Obviously it’s fun. Watching the roulette wheel spin and hoping that it lands on red is exciting! And if the casino is somewhere you go every once in a great while to have fun with friends, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s entertainment.
Sports gambling is similar. Putting a bet down on a meaningless football game in September to add extra excitement to the afternoon is relatively harmless. Putting in a silly parlay (a bet made up of several bets that all have to come true) for a small amount of money is also harmless. It’s entertainment, not a serious attempt to make money. When gambling becomes about making money- or recouping losses- the casinos have you hooked. You’re playing their game, which is mathematically stacked in their favor, to try to win money from them. Yes, even sports gambling is mathematically stacked against you. The gambling companies couldn’t build their casino-palaces if it wasn’t. Gambling to make money is dangerous and easy gambling- just a tap on a screen(!)- is even more dangerous. The danger of gambling is similar to the danger of alcohol- fun in small doses every once in a while, but life destroying in large amounts or when done too much.
Phone Gambling is too Dangerous for Me
In my opinion, gambling on my phone is too dangerous. It’s almost always with me. I don’t want another tempting thing on my phone. The gambling companies hired a small army of really smart people to design their apps to be as tempting as possible. Silicon Valley engineers can trick people into scrolling Facebook for several hours a day. Now they’re working with something that’s already addictive! Allowing sports gambling apps to live on your phone is inviting in a financial vampire. It’s too easy, too tantalizing, and too dangerous to keep close. That’s the trail of thought that I went down after seeing the “free $200” offers. It’s too good to be true, because they’ll have me hooked before the funny money is even gone.
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A Prognosis
The reason that casinos are fine is because they’re a night out. Unless you live right near one, it’s not convenient to go. Because of how easy it is, mobile gambling is going to cause a huge spike in gambling addictions. Like the tobacco companies of the 20th century, the gambling companies don’t care if they ruin lives. They put the Gambling addiction hotline at the bottom of every ad, to somehow legally absolved themselves of any issues. “People should have personal responsibility” they’ll say as they design the most addicting app they can. The only reason that they’ll limit the amount you can bet is if you win too much. Seriously. They’ll let you lose as much as you want, but once they think you have an edge, you’re banned.
Mobile sports betting is only the tip of the spear. What the casinos really want is mobile “slots” and “table games.” Offshore online casinos have already proven how profitable it is to run a virtual casino. You don’t have to build a giant casino. You don’t have to pay as much staff or any utility bills. And because it’s all virtual, it’s far removed from the physical world, making it even more addictive. The end game for casinos is putting full casino apps in people’s pockets. It will make it easy to do a couple slot spins while waiting in line at the grocery store. The gambling companies, like the tobacco companies, want to getas many people as possible hooked on their product. It’s a bleak future and one that we can’t collectively avoid while politicians take bags of money from casino lobbyists. But privately, we can avoid it by not buying into the sign up offers. By never getting sucked in.
