A Losing Bet

            Sports gambling has become a regular accompaniment to televised sports. It is impossible to watch a game now and not see an ad for a gambling company, specifically DraftKings or FanDuel. They are everywhere. Just a decade ago, sports gambling was still a very taboo topic, because people felt like it would corrupt sports, like the Black Sox scandal or Tim Donaghy in the NBA, but eventually, the money won out, and now it seems there is no turning back for better or worse.

            Danny Funt wrote an interesting book that was released this year called Everybody Loses, which goes into the history of sports betting, mostly in the U.S., and it also dives into how the sportsbooks operate, which unsurprisingly is not in a fair manner. There is also a big discussion on leagues' associations with the gambling companies and with sports media companies' relationships with the gambling companies.

            Funt brought up an interesting point about journalistic integrity when it comes to gambling. There are many insiders and reporters who are constantly garnering information that affects how lines can be set for games and help to predict who will win games, so they have to have some ethics to not take advantage of this information themselves, and many reporters said that they regularly have people reaching out to them asking them for information about who is playing and health concerns, so that they know who to bet on. Also, with gambling companies now being large advertising investors on these platforms, if there were a scandal, it could become a conflict of interest. Networks do not want to hurt their relationships with one of their biggest sponsors.

            On Katie Nolan’s podcast Sports, she regularly decries the necessity of gambling on sports, and she hates how ubiquitous it is. Sports should be about fun and rooting for your team, but slowly it has transformed into something else. On top of that, now athletes are being heckled not because they play for the rival team, but because they did not come through on the bet that a stranger placed, so now they are being attacked in their DMs and threatened for that. Many of these complaints come from parlays, where bettors need multiple parts to hit to reap their reward.

            The problem is that parlays are where gambling companies really make their money. People pick all sorts of things and bet them as one bet, so the odds are higher, so they have the chance for a bigger payout, but of course, that means that it is less likely to happen. So people who bet this way are constantly losing their money. Gambling companies often put boosts on these parlays as well to encourage people to make a less wise bet, because the potential winnings are so much bigger.

The most important rule of gambling is that the house always wins. The deck is always going to be stacked against the person wagering the money, and if the deck starts to lean in the wagerer’s hands, then the house will change the rules. Everybody Loses is rife with stories about successful gamblers that were continually turned away by sportsbooks because they were doing too well. So they would have to find creative ways to place their bets. Sometimes it was as silly as putting on a disguise to go into a casino in Vegas. Other times it was way more complicated, like creating a plethora of bot accounts so that they could make their money and not set off red flags.

Not only is it unfair, but it is also predatory. Sports betting on phones has given casinos even more information about how people wager and how much they are willing to lose. So there is a system set up to continue to lure the big fish into losing more of their money. If a person is betting large sums of money and constantly losing, they become a VIP client. Different sportsbooks have different terms for them, but basically, they lose a ton of money, so the sportsbooks give them prizes like great tickets for their favorite team or the ability to throw out a first pitch. They are also given a personal representative as well to encourage them to keep gambling. Then, if they start to win, the perks go away. No more free tickets. No more concierge service. They also have no real plan in place for people who bet beyond their means.   

Earlier this year I read a book about alcohol. It was written by a professor in England, and it was both scientific and personal. It was his journey through alcoholism and how he came out of it, but it was also the science behind how bad alcohol is for you, both biologically and, in some instances, personally. In a way, gambling can be compared. It might not destroy your internal organs, but it can be seriously harmful to personal relationships if you struggle with it, and like alcohol, it can also hurt you financially.

            The interesting thing is that despite having this knowledge, some of which I had before I read either of these books, I continue to engage in these behaviors. Never to a point of self-destruction. I have never made a financially irresponsible bet. In fact, I have never lost any money from sports betting. I do know that my body feels better, especially in the morning without alcohol, and although my drinking has receded greatly since right after graduating college, it still persists, which is psychologically interesting.

            Funt seems to draw the conclusion that human boredom explains the persistence of these behaviors. People know that drinking is bad for your body, but they continue to do it, and although the general education of gambling is limited, people know that it can be a slippery slope, but people still do it. People enjoy feeling something, though, so they still drink, and they still bet, because it makes them feel more invested. Watching sports is fun, but what if there were more personal stakes involved? I do not know if I completely agree, but I see the point.

            This book has many interesting points it is trying to make, and largely, it feels like gambling should not be this prevalent, both because of the financial well-being of people who lack the control to gamble responsibly and because it has serious potential to corrupt sports. Saying that a game is rigged has become commonplace, and so many people seem to actually believe it. The structural integrity around sports is fading, and it could lead to long-term implications. However, if I am being honest, I will continue to make my $1 and $2 bets on football for half a year and go back to betting hibernation the rest of the year. Just something to think about, and the commercials say, “Bet Responsibly!”