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Booming US gambling industry a ‘highway without speed limits’, top regulator warns
(www.theguardian.com)
What about the stock market and crypto market now?
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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That's not gambling, it shifts the money of the small home trader to the big players that manipulate the market.
Maybe it's actually pretty similar to gambling, the casino always wins.
A highway without speed limits is actually a good idea though as evidenced by the German Autobahn
How are highways and gambling equivalent to each other?
It really feels to me as someone who abstains from that particular vice to be like homes had running vodka next to the water tap. I don't like gambling as a vice, and while I have many reasons for opposing it, they're irrational next to my personal approval and use of alcohol.
But neither should be allowed to advertise, in the same way tobacco isn't. And gambling should be relegated to self and amicable administration in the home and in licensed physical establishments. You want to gamble with your friends and acquaintances? Have fun. But gambling in your own home should require you to find people to gamble with.
My significant other is definitely addicted. But they know how to control themselves. Basically you should think of a casino as you think of any service. You will pay a certain amount of money and you'll get a service. So as you would buy 20lb of water melon, you buy say $300.00 of casino day. Gone, lost forever. You think of it as spending that much. If you get something in return, then you get something in return. Else, you go home when your $300 is done. And so that's how you can control it.
Try watching The Tennis Channel. Matches are sponsored by gambling sites, and they show the current odds on the match so you can go place a bet. It isn't just an infographic. The commentators discuss the odds. too. It's fucking bizarre.
ESPN is reshaping coverage based on gambling stats. They have odds analysis. It is bonkers how captured media is already.
The amount of wealth transfer from the poor and undereducated to the wealthy this has already accomplished is devastating. Once the next big recession settles in, it's going to be terrible.
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/09/04/long-term-gambling-consequences/
Poor people getting poorer
As their numbers demonstrate clearly, gambling is leaving a trail of destruction in its wake — especially for those who are already poor.
3-4 years after legalizing online sports gambling, the likelihood of declaring bankruptcy increases by as much as 25-30%.
During this same time period, debt collection amounts also increase by 8%.
Auto loan delinquencies increase by 5%.
Another paper by business professors from BYU, Northwestern University and the University of Kansas found that the money for sports betting did not come from other forms of gambling. For example, people are not spending their lottery money on sports betting, but rather money from household and other investments. For example, legalization of sports gambling is associated with a 14% decrease in investments in the stock market.
Betting specific to sports also leads to more betting in other ways, with low-income households affected especially dramatically, these business scholars once again found. “Following the legalization of sports betting,” they write, “low-savings households increase their credit card balance by about $368 relative to high savings households, which is an increase of about 8% relative to the mean.”
For desperate families living paycheck to paycheck, $368 is huge.
It has been known for a long time that the lottery, for example, hurts struggling people the most, with The Economist reporting that “the average adult living in the poorest 1% of zip codes spends almost 5% (or $600 annually) of their income on lottery tickets.”
“There is definitely a ramping up period after legalization as people start to engage more in sports betting,” he said.
“After individuals place their first bet, the probability that the individual makes another bet is over 50% in each quarter for the next 3 years. Furthermore, those bet sizes tend to increase over time — 3 years after the first bet, these individuals are depositing 8x the size of their first quarter bets.”
So I have fair plenty vices, but I thank RNGesus that my brain isn't wired for gambling.
It is the first thing the poor utilize when desperate, gaming that has all odds against them. Yeah, there should be stricter laws and regulations. Right now, I would consider it a predatory industry.
“When I think about the industry right now, I see a highway without speed limits, cars without seatbelt dingers,” he said. “Regulators are who put the seatbelt dingers in. I don’t think the car manufacturers just woke up one day and decided to annoy whoever’s driving the car until they put their seatbelt on.
I disabled my seatbelt dinger because, while I basically never have someone in the passenger seat---and have only once in my life ever had the dinger clue me in that a passenger intentionally hadn't buckled up---I do put my backpack on my passenger seat and it sporadically sets it off, usually on the highway, which is infuriating. That happened hundreds of times before I disabled it.
It still flashes a warning light on the dash for a bit, but that's infinitely less annoying.
There was the National Gambling Impact Study that addressed this years ago.
Clearly these people took this report, flipped straight to the "risks annd warnings" section, and used it as an investment guide.