How many years are we away from sports betting becoming a national epidemic?

[76Shots]

I'm more worried about the current epidemic of people trying to decide for other people how they should spend their hard-earned money.

[Bad Bart]

This season I am watching the Hawks on Fan Duel. It just dawned on me that they must be doing pretty well to have their own network. How long before this (gambling) becomes a national epidemic? It's damn near being promoted everywhere! I am too cheap to gamble or bet on games!

It's funny how the first comment mentions that Fan Duel has their own network, and we're only now asking the question if there will be an epidemic in the future.

The future is now!

[Sane]

Now think about what must be happening in the larger rest of the gambling world lol

[TheDimeDropper]

Already there. Problem is with how the world is going right now and the shrinking middle class, jobs being replaced by AI (not Allen Iverson), and how minimum wage jobs can't cover the essentials, people decide to gamble hoping maybe one parlay or one big win can get them ahead. There's also the addicts who get hooked with the dopamine release that happens while gambling, and the easy accessibility. The issue is this pandoras box won't be closed. Too many rich people profit from the gambling sites and ads for it to be taken down. Maybe better education can curb it some, but it's to a point I personally don't think it'll get better, not unless something super drastic happens, and even then it'll likely be mitigated as an outlier and not the norm.

[Godymas]

just like vaping, drinking alcohol, and eating only junk food no one is really going to care if people want to damage themselves.

[dhsilv2]

The league benefits from sports betting from a revenue perspective, are the players going to willingly take pay cuts in order to try and ban it?

It's a different world to navigate now than it used to be because of the internet.

One of the more interesting shifts to see is the consumption of alcohol trending down while online gambling/trading/etc is trending up. Previously, it could probably be argued that the consumption of alcohol led to a lot of that "degenerate' activity but now we are seeing them become totally unrelated. There's a real urgency from Gen Z to "get rich quick" that wasn't as prevalent in previous generations. There's numerous reasons we can probably point to that would explain why.

Yeah, unfortunately the incentives are as such that only the consumer can stop it via choosing not to gamble (obviously not going to happen) or the government would need to write laws. The players and owners aren't going to willingly give up money in the name of being altruistic.

I think the best you can really do is educate and put out the real facts and let people decide for themselves. There has been a significant drop in smoking and drinking over the years especially among the younger generation as they have learned how unhealthy it is. You might see a similar thing happen with online gambling eventually one day once it's sort of normalized in our culture and isn't more of a newer thing like it is now.

The alternative is an authoritarian regime which controls everything.

We also pushed back on the marketing for these things to kids. Running gambling ads on the radio, tv, putting it on the court and so on isn't doing that. ESPN doesn't have their host smoking and talking about how great their brand is while throwing back Johny Walker. But they're doing essentially the same thing with betting.

[pepe1991]

just like vaping, drinking alcohol, and eating only junk food no one is really going to care if people want to damage themselves.

Gambling addictions are different. They pretty much devour entire families and impact so many lives by just having 1 gambling addict in family.

Problem with gambling, unlike drugs & alcohol is that you can appear "normal.

Guess highest suicide rate among addictions? Yep.

Socially it's unacceptable to be drunk and work. Will get you fired. Also it's illegal for some jobs. Socially, it's unacceptable to to drugs. You will get fired from basically any job.
Gambling isn't. You can hide it. It's been promoted everywhere.

I don't really feel sorry for 30-40 years old guy losing house to casino, but i feel sorry for 14-16 years old who will now grow up watching gambling commercials on tv & internet 24-7, as it's being programmed in his head that it's normal and desired to "try luck".
Than, casinos will, with smallest words possible write in corner of their commercial: it can can cause Addiction, you gamble on own volition. .

As their idolized sport athletes are telling them how they can make easy money by clicking on their site and palce bet. Free spins, free money. Free everything. On half of gambling sites you can log in without even being adult, without much security check. Put mammy's card number and you are in.

From personal experience, i was brought into world of sport gambling at age of 13 . It was normal where i'm from. Men bet on sports. Gambling was part of culture. You had machine, nobody regulated or asked my age. My friends and I would get in bar, by machine, place some bets, talk about it whole weekend. if we won, we would call some old drunky from local bar to pay out for us.
By the age of 18 i was addict without even knowing what gambling addiction is. Than i started casinos. Next decade of my life was most miserable waste of life possible. Wracked half of a family, ruined almost all relationships. Depression. Suicidal thoughts. Broken up engagement. With back backed up to a wall, i visited psychiatrist. Third. That woman saved my life.

In Europe, every 8th teenager is gambling online.
In survey from 2024, across 37 countries in Europe, despite fact teenage gambling is illegal in all 37, 23% of teens said they are gambling at least once a month.

Online gambling among European teenagers has nearly doubled in the past six years — and tripled among girls — according to a new survey of 114,000 students aged 15 and 16 across 37 countries. Girls are also more likely to view their social media use as problematic. While alcohol use is declining across Europe, it remains high in some regions, particularly Denmark (55%), Germany (49%) and Austria (48%). Traditional cigarette smoking has fallen by more than half since 1995 to 32%, and illegal drug use has dropped, but vaping and prescription drug misuse are on the rise.

In poor(er) countries gambling is even bigger issue in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina has at least 50 000 pathological gambling addicts by data from country. That is country of 3 million people. But data suggests that around 500 000 people actually gamble & place sport bets.
Keep in mind that Bosnia & Herzegovina has huge part of muslims who's are forbidden to gamble as part of their beliefs ( not that Christianity is much different, but christians tends to be more linear when it comes to laws of God ). Little more digging got me to 4000. That is how many casinos & betting houses exit in Bosnia. Country of 3 million people. One per 750 people. I'm talking about physical places. There are as many online casinos.

Gambling is plague.

[sikma42]

If you watch sports it’s almost impossible to get away from now. Sickening hearing about weird over/unders and gambling tips on pregame shows.

It’s being normalized and it just adds to the destruction it’s causing. Hate seeing people gambling and destroying their families.


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[Jailblazers7]

IMO sports gambling should be like cigarettes. Legal but no advertising and physically restricted. No ads, no apps. If you want to make a sports bet, you’ve gotta walk into a casino.

[dhsilv2]

Just to drive home how different gambling is being treated. Here is a youtuber who like most youtubers I'd guess sells mostly to people under 18 or at least a huge portion of his audience is. This is the guy who did the fake Klay prank.

Link is directly to the ad so I don't think I can do the normal linking.

https://youtu.be/2NIxtt2SbhQ?si=7KPdLCMpHpbeijMu&t=201


This is obvious intentional marketing to the younger demographics with hopes of getting people in early. The exact types of advertising we ban tobacco companies from and at least age restrict with alcohol.

I'm not pushing to ban sports better or gambling. You do you. But the way it's marketed it unhinged. We went from making something illegal to allowing just absolute anything goes marketing. Next up Dr Sues readings brought to you buy draftkings. Draftkings, we win because we're betting story time attendees are under 15!

[WestbrookGOATed]

Epidemic???

[dhsilv2]

Epidemic???

An epidemic is when a disease spreads rapidly, affecting a disproportionately large number of people in a specific community, population, or region. Unlike a pandemic, which is a global epidemic, an epidemic is limited to a smaller geographic area.

Actually, an extremely well used word for this.

[Bankai]

Sports Gambling used to be clear cut illegal. Now its in a grey area with some Leagues and Promotions approving certain ones.

You either fully make it legal, or dont. Anything in a grey area is bound to be discriminatory as enforcement can target certain people.

[HotelVitale]

Epidemic???

An epidemic is when a disease spreads rapidly, affecting a disproportionately large number of people in a specific community, population, or region. Unlike a pandemic, which is a global epidemic, an epidemic is limited to a smaller geographic area. Actually, an extremely well used word for this.

Eh, not sure I like the idea of equating all gambling with getting a disease. Most people can gamble some without running into significant problems, the issue is more that when the problems do appear they can get rough. I guess that's like some epidemics in a sense (most illnesses will generally not seriously harm most people) but I don't know if it's the best word here.

I'd be more interested in when we think these problems will be so widespread and serious that they can't be ignored or dealt with in a small patchwork way. I.e. when the political backlash will come for the new gambling kingpins.

[dhsilv2]

Epidemic???

An epidemic is when a disease spreads rapidly, affecting a disproportionately large number of people in a specific community, population, or region. Unlike a pandemic, which is a global epidemic, an epidemic is limited to a smaller geographic area. Actually, an extremely well used word for this.

Eh, not sure I like the idea of equating all gambling with getting a disease. Most people can gamble some without running into significant problems, the issue is more that when the problems do appear they can get rough. I guess that's like some epidemics in a sense (most illnesses will generally not seriously harm most people) but I don't know if it's the best word here.

I'd be more interested in when we think these problems will be so widespread and serious that they can't be ignored or dealt with in a small patchwork way. I.e. when the political backlash will come for the new gambling kingpins.

I think you nailed it. Most people who get a disease likely don't even have symptoms. But for others it's very harmful. I think if we let marketing keep running away like this, we are going to have problems.

[An Unbiased Fan]

Most adults know how to control themselves. A few who can't doesn't make for an epidemics. Greed has been around since forever, and the whole "addiction" excuse is something they can cope with their therapist about. These people know right from wrong

[PushDaRock]

Yeah, unfortunately the incentives are as such that only the consumer can stop it via choosing not to gamble (obviously not going to happen) or the government would need to write laws. The players and owners aren't going to willingly give up money in the name of being altruistic.

I think the best you can really do is educate and put out the real facts and let people decide for themselves. There has been a significant drop in smoking and drinking over the years especially among the younger generation as they have learned how unhealthy it is. You might see a similar thing happen with online gambling eventually one day once it's sort of normalized in our culture and isn't more of a newer thing like it is now.

The alternative is an authoritarian regime which controls everything.

We also pushed back on the marketing for these things to kids. Running gambling ads on the radio, tv, putting it on the court and so on isn't doing that. ESPN doesn't have their host smoking and talking about how great their brand is while throwing back Johny Walker. But they're doing essentially the same thing with betting.

Are kids even the demographic for that stuff? I would say probably not. Gen Z and younger isn't listening to radio or tuning into tv much, they're almost all strictly internet which is a totally different beast. Social media marketing/advertising is where I would look at more as far as impact on kids.

I would also point to social acceptance of gambling/stock trading being the main culprit in it's rise in popularity.

[Infinite Llamas]

just like vaping, drinking alcohol, and eating only junk food no one is really going to care if people want to damage themselves.

Yeah, because drunk drivers never damage the lives of others.

[Capn'O]

Zero.

[PushDaRock]

An epidemic is when a disease spreads rapidly, affecting a disproportionately large number of people in a specific community, population, or region. Unlike a pandemic, which is a global epidemic, an epidemic is limited to a smaller geographic area. Actually, an extremely well used word for this.

Eh, not sure I like the idea of equating all gambling with getting a disease. Most people can gamble some without running into significant problems, the issue is more that when the problems do appear they can get rough. I guess that's like some epidemics in a sense (most illnesses will generally not seriously harm most people) but I don't know if it's the best word here.

I'd be more interested in when we think these problems will be so widespread and serious that they can't be ignored or dealt with in a small patchwork way. I.e. when the political backlash will come for the new gambling kingpins.

I think you nailed it. Most people who get a disease likely don't even have symptoms. But for others it's very harmful. I think if we let marketing keep running away like this, we are going to have problems.

It's already inevitable IMO. We will have the financialization of everything meaning anything can/will be speculated/gambled on.