I was thinking about JVL's take when reading about new proposed federal legislation called the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (Safe Bet) Act. It was introduced by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and would require states to be approved by the Justice Department in order to offer legalized sports gambling. To get approval, those states would need to limit or ban certain activities related to advertising (e.g. not during live sports events), affordability (e.g. limit the number of daily deposits a consumer could make), and AI (e.g. tracking players' gambling habits to serve them specific promotions.)
No idea whether there is any interest in this from the rest of Congress, but it will be interesting to see whether the bill sparks any comments or debate among candidates running for office in November.
I've always been opposed to all public gambling (though I don't see a problem with, say, a low-ante poker game between friends). Gambling, like drugs and alcohol, carries inherent addiction potential. Some people's neurochemistry makes them especially susceptible to addiction. You can argue that most drinkers are not alcoholics and most gamblers are not addicts, but that does not address the actual problem. Flip it around the other way: The vast majority of alcohol sold in the US is purchased by alcoholics, and the vast majority of money wagered is lost by people with a gambling problem. The alcohol industry promotes alcoholism because it knows it could not be profitable if everyone drank responsibly. Likewise, the gambling industry promotes addiction because that is how it makes its profit.
I was raised United Methodist. The UMC has always taken a strong and vocal stance against gambling. (Whenever a gambling initiative is on the ballot, the UMC outspends all other gambling opponents combined to combat it.) So, I was conscious of the social ills of problem gambling a long time ago. One of my pastors was raised in poverty after his father gambled away the family's wealth. Another example: My cousin's second wife, who worked in a Louisiana casino, got hooked on gambling and stole $100 their daughter had won in a talent competition to gamble with. The marriage didn't last much longer after that.
State-sponsored lotteries are not profitable, on net, for state governments. State gambling revenue is not sufficient to pay for the social ills that result from gambling. But wealthy gambling interests can always find politicians willing to take their money in exchange for selling out their citizens.
Combining the easy access of online gambling and using credit cards for payment is bad enough. Then adding in the huge disadavantage of players unknowingly pitted against bots rather than human opponents is just plain evil.
This shouldn't even be considered gambling, since the outcomes have been predetermined by the house.
To Tim's point about cash in the gambling apps...if I'm not mistaken, you CANNOT link a credit card to the Virginia lottery webpage. If you want to buy lottery tickets, you need to put "cash" in from a bank account.
JVL makes a compelling argument on internet Gambling. Norway funds their youth sports system through regulated gambling. Is Norway's approach something moderates would consider?
Hi Bulwark subscribers, dropping this here again. We subscribe cuz we care about this election. The election has started and we win it or lose it in the next 4 weeks. So, humbly, I ask you to not just read this, do this. Relational organizing can make a huge difference. We don't all need to get 100 people out to vote, but if we can get 2-5 out to vote who wouldn't have otherwise, we'll win in a landslide.
So, please, today:
--Make a list of all the young people you know who are recently of voting age and send them this simple voter registration link: www.iwillvote.com . Please use your sway to impress upon them the importance of voting, voting early, and getting all their friends to register, vote, and vote early. Voter registration deadlines are approaching, we want to hit this hard NOW.
--Make a list of all the people you know in the crucial swing states: PA/MI/WI/AZ/NV/NC/GA. I mean everyone -- friends/neighbors/boyfriends/former neighbors who moved there/old boyfriends/old girlfriends :) Please send them the registration link and tell them to VOTE ASAP and to spread the word to all their networks to do the same, and their networks to spread it, and so on.
--Please spread this idea far and even this copy far and wide to all your pro-Harris networks (Social Media/Email Lists/Texting). Feel free to post/send a couple of times so the VOTING EARLY mantra sets in.
--Please make a small weekly donation to the Harris Campaign, if you can. Weekly donations are crucial for their planning and scaling in the crucial closing weeks. We want to keep crushing with our cash advantage so we can get out the vote. Even $3-$5 weekly donation from each of us, which we can cancel after the election, can make a huge difference. THEY HAVE A HUGE SEPT 30 FUNDING DEADLINE COMING UP, so anything you can give before then, please do.
Team, this is how we win and the time is NOW. Let's please please all do this, knowing we left it all on the field. Proud to be working alongside all of you.
These are the kind of stories we need. While I keep hearing how much eggs cost and gas, Americans spend $108 billion on lotteries, $119 Billion on sports betting,$15 Billion on cruises,$16 Billion sports tickets and $230 Billion on pleasure boats. Our politics have distracted us from reality and what really affects us. More please!
I take a more retro view, that if you want to gamble in this country, you ought to be required to go to Atlantic City, Vegas, or your local thoroughbred racetrack, and that's it. No more state lotteries, no more cabinets of scratchers in every goddamned convenience store. Gambling is a cancer on this country.
Thanks. I really appreciate you taking time and giving space to this subject. I had exactly zero knowledge of online gambling and sports betting, and this was an eye opener. I second your wish that we didn’t have to talk about saving democracy and the peril we are in all of the time. I accept that we do, but it’s a damn shame we must.
But what exactly does "roll back" mean in this instance? Are we talking about banning online gambling? Good luck making that stick. Or just regulating it? I would see the latter option as more reasonable, but again, how do you enforce it? The Bloomberg article indicated that poker sites do their best to spot and ban bots, but it's a moving target, and they are always behind the development curve. So how can we realistically even roll back the industry?
It does seem to be a simple principle. If your product causes a social problem, you should incur extra costs to mitigate it. Same principle we're applying to climate change. Another good idea would be a sugar tax. You're selling sugary breakfast cereal? Yep, people do want it. But you're going to have to fund a lot of treatment for diabetes, sleep apnea, knee replacements etc. Gun manufacturers? How about some extra kick in for law enforcement and hospitals.
I can hear the screaming from my old neo-liberal self but I'm honestly not sure there's anything wrong with this.
In the same article where you deride online and mobile gambling, you express admiration for the "gamification" of the hiking of the Appalachian Trail. What was (or maybe should be) a contemplative walk through the woods is now for many a competition. Sure, triumph of the human spirit and all that, I guess.
Probably not too long before there is a race, run by a profit making entity, on the trail for just this purpose.
I was thinking about JVL's take when reading about new proposed federal legislation called the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (Safe Bet) Act. It was introduced by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and would require states to be approved by the Justice Department in order to offer legalized sports gambling. To get approval, those states would need to limit or ban certain activities related to advertising (e.g. not during live sports events), affordability (e.g. limit the number of daily deposits a consumer could make), and AI (e.g. tracking players' gambling habits to serve them specific promotions.)
No idea whether there is any interest in this from the rest of Congress, but it will be interesting to see whether the bill sparks any comments or debate among candidates running for office in November.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/13/federal-bill-regulations-sports-betting-operators-safe-bet-act.html
I've always been opposed to all public gambling (though I don't see a problem with, say, a low-ante poker game between friends). Gambling, like drugs and alcohol, carries inherent addiction potential. Some people's neurochemistry makes them especially susceptible to addiction. You can argue that most drinkers are not alcoholics and most gamblers are not addicts, but that does not address the actual problem. Flip it around the other way: The vast majority of alcohol sold in the US is purchased by alcoholics, and the vast majority of money wagered is lost by people with a gambling problem. The alcohol industry promotes alcoholism because it knows it could not be profitable if everyone drank responsibly. Likewise, the gambling industry promotes addiction because that is how it makes its profit.
I was raised United Methodist. The UMC has always taken a strong and vocal stance against gambling. (Whenever a gambling initiative is on the ballot, the UMC outspends all other gambling opponents combined to combat it.) So, I was conscious of the social ills of problem gambling a long time ago. One of my pastors was raised in poverty after his father gambled away the family's wealth. Another example: My cousin's second wife, who worked in a Louisiana casino, got hooked on gambling and stole $100 their daughter had won in a talent competition to gamble with. The marriage didn't last much longer after that.
State-sponsored lotteries are not profitable, on net, for state governments. State gambling revenue is not sufficient to pay for the social ills that result from gambling. But wealthy gambling interests can always find politicians willing to take their money in exchange for selling out their citizens.
Combining the easy access of online gambling and using credit cards for payment is bad enough. Then adding in the huge disadavantage of players unknowingly pitted against bots rather than human opponents is just plain evil.
This shouldn't even be considered gambling, since the outcomes have been predetermined by the house.
To Tim's point about cash in the gambling apps...if I'm not mistaken, you CANNOT link a credit card to the Virginia lottery webpage. If you want to buy lottery tickets, you need to put "cash" in from a bank account.
JVL makes a compelling argument on internet Gambling. Norway funds their youth sports system through regulated gambling. Is Norway's approach something moderates would consider?
Hi Bulwark subscribers, dropping this here again. We subscribe cuz we care about this election. The election has started and we win it or lose it in the next 4 weeks. So, humbly, I ask you to not just read this, do this. Relational organizing can make a huge difference. We don't all need to get 100 people out to vote, but if we can get 2-5 out to vote who wouldn't have otherwise, we'll win in a landslide.
So, please, today:
--Make a list of all the young people you know who are recently of voting age and send them this simple voter registration link: www.iwillvote.com . Please use your sway to impress upon them the importance of voting, voting early, and getting all their friends to register, vote, and vote early. Voter registration deadlines are approaching, we want to hit this hard NOW.
--Make a list of all the people you know in the crucial swing states: PA/MI/WI/AZ/NV/NC/GA. I mean everyone -- friends/neighbors/boyfriends/former neighbors who moved there/old boyfriends/old girlfriends :) Please send them the registration link and tell them to VOTE ASAP and to spread the word to all their networks to do the same, and their networks to spread it, and so on.
--Please spread this idea far and even this copy far and wide to all your pro-Harris networks (Social Media/Email Lists/Texting). Feel free to post/send a couple of times so the VOTING EARLY mantra sets in.
--Please make a small weekly donation to the Harris Campaign, if you can. Weekly donations are crucial for their planning and scaling in the crucial closing weeks. We want to keep crushing with our cash advantage so we can get out the vote. Even $3-$5 weekly donation from each of us, which we can cancel after the election, can make a huge difference. THEY HAVE A HUGE SEPT 30 FUNDING DEADLINE COMING UP, so anything you can give before then, please do.
Team, this is how we win and the time is NOW. Let's please please all do this, knowing we left it all on the field. Proud to be working alongside all of you.
These are the kind of stories we need. While I keep hearing how much eggs cost and gas, Americans spend $108 billion on lotteries, $119 Billion on sports betting,$15 Billion on cruises,$16 Billion sports tickets and $230 Billion on pleasure boats. Our politics have distracted us from reality and what really affects us. More please!
I take a more retro view, that if you want to gamble in this country, you ought to be required to go to Atlantic City, Vegas, or your local thoroughbred racetrack, and that's it. No more state lotteries, no more cabinets of scratchers in every goddamned convenience store. Gambling is a cancer on this country.
Great piece, JVL. Definitely made me think about the issue differently. Keep on cranking out policy pieces.
Thanks. I really appreciate you taking time and giving space to this subject. I had exactly zero knowledge of online gambling and sports betting, and this was an eye opener. I second your wish that we didn’t have to talk about saving democracy and the peril we are in all of the time. I accept that we do, but it’s a damn shame we must.
But what exactly does "roll back" mean in this instance? Are we talking about banning online gambling? Good luck making that stick. Or just regulating it? I would see the latter option as more reasonable, but again, how do you enforce it? The Bloomberg article indicated that poker sites do their best to spot and ban bots, but it's a moving target, and they are always behind the development curve. So how can we realistically even roll back the industry?
I’ve been thinking a lot of this in my head for awhile and really great to see some articles and analysis being published
It does seem to be a simple principle. If your product causes a social problem, you should incur extra costs to mitigate it. Same principle we're applying to climate change. Another good idea would be a sugar tax. You're selling sugary breakfast cereal? Yep, people do want it. But you're going to have to fund a lot of treatment for diabetes, sleep apnea, knee replacements etc. Gun manufacturers? How about some extra kick in for law enforcement and hospitals.
I can hear the screaming from my old neo-liberal self but I'm honestly not sure there's anything wrong with this.
The Right speaks of The Nanny State (with some reason). Why don’t we also discuss The Carnie State?
Regarding the Appalachian Trail story, talk about A Good Walk Spoiled.
Funny.
In the same article where you deride online and mobile gambling, you express admiration for the "gamification" of the hiking of the Appalachian Trail. What was (or maybe should be) a contemplative walk through the woods is now for many a competition. Sure, triumph of the human spirit and all that, I guess.
Probably not too long before there is a race, run by a profit making entity, on the trail for just this purpose.