Almost every tech platform is designed to grab and hold your attention, to keep you clicking, scrolling, and buying for as long as possible.
Sports gambling has become one of the clearest examples of this. The industry has created frictionless apps on your phone that let you bet on everything from March Madness to a pregame coin toss to who wins a minor league British dart tournament.
While betting has become easier — and arguably fun — the cost of these apps is much higher than the money that is won and lost on them.
Today’s guest is Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling. He and Sean discuss the rise of sports betting, why the industry targets young men in their advertising, the social costs of frictionless sports gambling, and how the industry could be improved.
50% of men have a sports betting app on their phone, 70% of people who live on university campuses now gamble. I hate the Burger Reich I hate the Burger Reich 
I’m a puritan on this topic. Sports betting should be illegal.
Yeah, me too. At the very least make advertising it illegal, but that’s too much to ask from this hellworld.
Absolutely. Even if you don’t care about the consequences of gambling itself, it should still be illegal just for how completely it destroys the integrity of sports.
Anti-sports people vindicated again. 50% is ridiculous, holy shit.
Imo if we have to have gambling, it shouldn’t involve real money. You get an allowance of 100 SportsBux every month to gamble as you please. “Oh but that’s not as fun, I need the risk!” too bad sweaty, big government is coming for you
The pendulum swing against nerds in certain online left spaces feels a lot like the pendulum swing against atheists: contrarianism against a subculture because it has a lot of shitty people while forgetting that the dominant culture it opposes is in fact also shitty.
in every case the subculture is less bad than the thing it formed in reaction to, we had just successfully bullied the creationists, quiverfull frreaks, and meatheads out of normal spaces.
50% damn! I guess that tracks because i never have, gambling makes me feel anxiety, but i knew a bunch of guys that did.
i asked once what got them started/coming back, and they said it made the games more interesting.
yeesh. imagine being on the field, ruining your body and giving yourself CTE, and people are so disinterested they have to gamble on it to give a shit.
If 70% of people on college campuses gamble, then that means a very high percent of women are also gambling in college, which surprises me since I very rarely hear women talk about gambling on the campus I work at.
Women, are you gambling in secret?
Are we sure a US media outlet would consider women as people?
While betting has become easier — and arguably fun — the cost of these apps is much higher than the money that is won and lost on them
Literally advertising for it while they talk about it
70% of people who live on university campuses now gamble.
Me: wow im in the 30%
Me remembering all the pokemon showdown matches i lost over an unnecesary 50/50 play: oh noo
This is not the kind of thing a healthy society does.
I don’t really have a problem with gambling as an act but the delivery method is extremely problematic. Casinos too, in the larger conversation, but the phone represents a unique challenge.
If you go to a casino you gamble with their money - chips, traditionally. This has the effect of separating the money from the play. It’s easier to lose a $100 chip than $100. That’s how you lose track. But even then if you have 5x$5 chips, $25 total, you still have five tactile objects in hand reminding you of the value. If it’s just a number linked to your account? There’s nothing to remind you as you spend that money.
Edit: also the big gambling industry players invest heavily in research so the fact that they all jumped on the wagon says a lot about their opinion of sports betting, if they thought it was a threat to them or would pay out so much they’d be unprofitable they wouldn’t be here.
This is just an everyday thing here in the Balkans lol. Slot clubs and gambling houses here appear like mushrooms after rain.
Also they let minors gamble because who cares bout following the law amirite?
Slot clubs and gambling houses are bad but I still don’t think they beat “fucking up your entire financial future with 8 taps on a phone” levels of bad
Oh don’t worry, ours are thankfully technologically there now so It enables your addiction more.
That shit is a big problem in Brazil too. All soccer teams has some betting as sponsor.
The shittier thing is that casino and gambling is illegal but virtual casino is ok.
I realized that fantasy sports reeeeeeallly scratch the itch for my particular spot on the spectrum - and have had to cut them out entirely. Especially daily fantasy/apps; kinda wild to have the neurotransmitter equivalent of a cig just available, and so blatantly a way to siphon money from people
The people I know who gamble on sports watch the games live, whereas the folks who don’t gamble often start an hour or so after the listed time so they can fast-forward through commercials. I expect that gambling makes everyone else’s advertisements more valuable, too - and having people bet on whether or not Giannis makes the next free throw means they’ll submit to the ads they show on half the screen during the goddamn game.
sports betting entities are some of the lowest of the low
So glad I’m old enough to have missed this completely
50% and 70%
good lord
Where’s our Kaiji emojis when we need them?
Zawa zawa
