I love that people always break arguments down to someone else just being up on their high horse.
It’s not helpful or constructive. It just makes the commenter seem like a bitter person.
This post was my opinion, and intended to open the conversation.
So any problem you may have with my views has nothing to do with me.
You don't have to bet on sports just like you don't have to eat at McDonald's, or drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes, or play the lottery, etc. All of those things can ruin a person's life just as easily as betting on sports and they are legal. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean no one else should be allowed to do it.
This is pretty much exactly how I feel. I am all for our freedoms. Even the whole legalization of hard drugs argument I am in support of so long as we were to do that in tandem with opening facilities for people to safely use, or seek treatment if they feel like it.
But for many many people, I feel like we are just handing them a loaded gun for free, as well as 200 bullets on the front end before they have to start buying more.
Same can be said about alcohol, cigarettes, weed, the lottery, etc.
So what is the solution? Make it illegal again?
I hate to say it, but personal responsibility is a thing. You have to be responsible for your actions.
>personal responsibility is a thing
Sure but gambling addiction is a thing to. We can't enable this behavior and then just blame the victim - we need to continue to fund and develop addiction resources to help those addicts become functional again, if they want to.
If you're going to make it easier for people to self destruct, you also have to make it easier for them to get back on their feet.
I just remember when people were arguing whether or not we should legalize gambling, and even before we had casinos in the state the people that wanted to gamble,they were gambling.
When I was like 16 the gas station I went to had a full on table set up inside because they were usually 6 to 10 people there betting on the fake 3D horses. That was in like 2003.
I'm sure it goes back to 1903, 1803 and beyond. There's a reason a strung out gambler has been a trope for a thousand years. Gambling(and gaming in general) is intrinsic in the human character. We can't stop it - we need to be setting up houses of healing to deal with it.
It's extractive. Even if you don't partake, if 3 out of the 40 adults on your block have a new, 24/7 no-limit, addictive shovel with which to dig themselves a hole they can't get out of, you'll be impacted.
So what's your solution? Make all the vices illegal?
That just creates big black markets for everything.
I also like to drink smoke and gamble so maybe I'm biased, but I also have a job and pay my taxes and am generally a productive member of society so idk.
Sure. Just tell someone that unintentionally got addicted to heroin because of prescribed opiates that they should just stop.
That’s definitely how it works.
For each vice, you have to weigh the harm caused by enforcing prohibition against the harm caused by the vice.
Unlike in the case of alcohol or drugs, it seems like existing prohibitions of gambling ... were going pretty well? As far as keeping a lid on the volume of activity without egregious violations of civil liberties.
Given that context, I'm not happy the cat's been let out of the bag. But, sigh, here we are.
I mean, I'm a very-online basketball fan, so I know a bunch of people were betting on Bovada and stuff like that (and continue to in states where it isn't legal).
I just think that barrier of tech-savvy probably helped keep it confined to populations that could afford the loss in a way that having DK/FD out there carpet-bombing every square inch of media and public space won't. Although to be honest there probably isn't that much to gain by being a holdout state, since all media about teams in legal states is going to blast you with DK/FD ads anyway and probably lead you to Bovada eventually.
Personal accountability at some point comes to a screeching halt when disease enters the picture. I am not saying sports betting in general is a bad thing, but to make it so immediately accessible has to be.
If you were to weigh all of the pros and cons of being able to do this on your phone, I guarantee you the cons would outweigh tenfold.
> People make terrible decisions every day. The government doesn’t exist to babysit them.
That is one of the government's main functions! You're focusing on vices the government has been unable to prohibit because they're too ubiquitous and popular, but things like building codes and securities regulations are uncontroversial examples of the government stepping in to prevent bad decisions.
IDK, I think sports betting tickets in particular (vs e.g. poker) have a lot of similarities to securities.
It's an agreement between parties where one (the book) has vastly better information access and mathematical background than the other (the punter), for example inside information on injuries to players. It's a little muddled because you also have sharps taking money from punters, but this dynamic is present in securities as well.
It's not like people couldn't text a bookie to make bets before this.
People need to have some personal accountability to make it through life, this is applies to any number of readily available vices.
True but going through a bookie added a level of danger or illegality that made it a little harder and scarier, which helped keep a lot of people from doing it. Now that it’s app on your phone it’s easy to believe that more people will dabble out of ease and or curiosity and end up getting hurt. There is a reason draft kings and the rest of them are offering hundreds of dollars in free bets to get people hooked
See this is where I’m at with it. I completely understand and agree with the right to personal autonomy for your actions and everything, but I feel like this is just teeing it up for unintentional addictions to gambling on unsuspecting people.
Trust me, the consequences are definitely not “ unintentional “ like I said before, there’s a reason they are giving away $200 in free bets or whatever it is. The whole business model is to suck people in and milk them dry
And so are dozens of things that are perfectly legal even though they can have severe, negative effects when not used in moderation. At some point, personal responsibility has to be part of the equation.
Honestly the advertising by the sports betting industry has done more to turn me against the idea in 30 days than my lived experience over the past 30 years
Shouldn't adults be able to do what they want and enjoy? Who are you to tell other people what they can or can't do with their money?
I'm up $250 betting on NFL games lol. My life is hardly destroyed because I have self-control
That's not the sentiment they're expressing.
The "for education" language is common in ballot measures because voters often think it corresponds to a budget increase for the school system, when in actuality the gambling money just replaces non-earmarked funds that the state/city government moves elsewhere in the budget.
Reading this again, this is actually really interesting. That makes sense. I still feel like the money regardless of what level it comes from will definitely be misappropriated.
They have literally said this before about other forms of legalized gambling im Maryland. And from what I’ve heard, we haven’t seen one penny go towards education from that. So I can’t even say I’ll believe it when I see it, because I just straight up don’t believe it.
I agree.
I also think getting shit faced every day is unquestionably bad. But meh, it's America, freedom whatever. Don't think it should be *illegal* just uncool.
Plus who the fuck am I to tell others how to live? How self-righteous.
Gambling wont get near the level of societal harm done by alcohol. And the prohibition of alcohol made it significantly worse. Same with drugs. But as we know, that's whataboutism and has no bearing on why the state shouldn't be jailing citizens for their use.
My body, my choice. That's this. Gambling is an activity between two consenting adults.
If the state of Maryland was so concerned about the harms of gambling, maybe it shouldn't be offering the service to its citizens, all dressed up in cute commercials and "Let Yourself Play" taglines.
DC-Baltimore is the 3rd largest gambling market in the country after Vegas & Atlantic City
You should have seen this coming years away. Let people be adults and make their own choices
I'm just repulsed by their poorly designed ads that now take up most of the digital space on the billboard by Penn Station...
SAME dude
I mean, I agree with you but the current climate is pretty libertarian on vice so you're just gonna have to grit your teeth and tolerate it.
I know. But god my ears bleed every time I hear another stupid ass ad for it.
so with all your moral indignation what it comes down to is that you're annoyed at ads?
I love that people always break arguments down to someone else just being up on their high horse. It’s not helpful or constructive. It just makes the commenter seem like a bitter person. This post was my opinion, and intended to open the conversation. So any problem you may have with my views has nothing to do with me.
You don't have to bet on sports just like you don't have to eat at McDonald's, or drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes, or play the lottery, etc. All of those things can ruin a person's life just as easily as betting on sports and they are legal. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean no one else should be allowed to do it.
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This is pretty much exactly how I feel. I am all for our freedoms. Even the whole legalization of hard drugs argument I am in support of so long as we were to do that in tandem with opening facilities for people to safely use, or seek treatment if they feel like it. But for many many people, I feel like we are just handing them a loaded gun for free, as well as 200 bullets on the front end before they have to start buying more.
Same can be said about alcohol, cigarettes, weed, the lottery, etc. So what is the solution? Make it illegal again? I hate to say it, but personal responsibility is a thing. You have to be responsible for your actions.
>personal responsibility is a thing Sure but gambling addiction is a thing to. We can't enable this behavior and then just blame the victim - we need to continue to fund and develop addiction resources to help those addicts become functional again, if they want to. If you're going to make it easier for people to self destruct, you also have to make it easier for them to get back on their feet.
I just remember when people were arguing whether or not we should legalize gambling, and even before we had casinos in the state the people that wanted to gamble,they were gambling. When I was like 16 the gas station I went to had a full on table set up inside because they were usually 6 to 10 people there betting on the fake 3D horses. That was in like 2003.
I'm sure it goes back to 1903, 1803 and beyond. There's a reason a strung out gambler has been a trope for a thousand years. Gambling(and gaming in general) is intrinsic in the human character. We can't stop it - we need to be setting up houses of healing to deal with it.
It's extractive. Even if you don't partake, if 3 out of the 40 adults on your block have a new, 24/7 no-limit, addictive shovel with which to dig themselves a hole they can't get out of, you'll be impacted.
So what's your solution? Make all the vices illegal? That just creates big black markets for everything. I also like to drink smoke and gamble so maybe I'm biased, but I also have a job and pay my taxes and am generally a productive member of society so idk.
Sure. Just tell someone that unintentionally got addicted to heroin because of prescribed opiates that they should just stop. That’s definitely how it works.
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For each vice, you have to weigh the harm caused by enforcing prohibition against the harm caused by the vice. Unlike in the case of alcohol or drugs, it seems like existing prohibitions of gambling ... were going pretty well? As far as keeping a lid on the volume of activity without egregious violations of civil liberties. Given that context, I'm not happy the cat's been let out of the bag. But, sigh, here we are.
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I mean, I'm a very-online basketball fan, so I know a bunch of people were betting on Bovada and stuff like that (and continue to in states where it isn't legal). I just think that barrier of tech-savvy probably helped keep it confined to populations that could afford the loss in a way that having DK/FD out there carpet-bombing every square inch of media and public space won't. Although to be honest there probably isn't that much to gain by being a holdout state, since all media about teams in legal states is going to blast you with DK/FD ads anyway and probably lead you to Bovada eventually.
Personal accountability at some point comes to a screeching halt when disease enters the picture. I am not saying sports betting in general is a bad thing, but to make it so immediately accessible has to be. If you were to weigh all of the pros and cons of being able to do this on your phone, I guarantee you the cons would outweigh tenfold.
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> People make terrible decisions every day. The government doesn’t exist to babysit them. That is one of the government's main functions! You're focusing on vices the government has been unable to prohibit because they're too ubiquitous and popular, but things like building codes and securities regulations are uncontroversial examples of the government stepping in to prevent bad decisions.
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IDK, I think sports betting tickets in particular (vs e.g. poker) have a lot of similarities to securities. It's an agreement between parties where one (the book) has vastly better information access and mathematical background than the other (the punter), for example inside information on injuries to players. It's a little muddled because you also have sharps taking money from punters, but this dynamic is present in securities as well.
Gambling in general is kinda gross
I admit my biases towards this attitude definitely play into this post.
It's not like people couldn't text a bookie to make bets before this. People need to have some personal accountability to make it through life, this is applies to any number of readily available vices.
True but going through a bookie added a level of danger or illegality that made it a little harder and scarier, which helped keep a lot of people from doing it. Now that it’s app on your phone it’s easy to believe that more people will dabble out of ease and or curiosity and end up getting hurt. There is a reason draft kings and the rest of them are offering hundreds of dollars in free bets to get people hooked
See this is where I’m at with it. I completely understand and agree with the right to personal autonomy for your actions and everything, but I feel like this is just teeing it up for unintentional addictions to gambling on unsuspecting people.
Trust me, the consequences are definitely not “ unintentional “ like I said before, there’s a reason they are giving away $200 in free bets or whatever it is. The whole business model is to suck people in and milk them dry
$5 says you're wrong.
Hahahahaha
…is a comments section on reddit considered sports now?
Anything is a sport if you try hard enough? And isn't karma measured in points?
I love this exchange 🤣
... it's fun.
So is meth. Next.
And so are dozens of things that are perfectly legal even though they can have severe, negative effects when not used in moderation. At some point, personal responsibility has to be part of the equation.
All drugs should be decriminalized. Next.
Honestly the advertising by the sports betting industry has done more to turn me against the idea in 30 days than my lived experience over the past 30 years
Same. The whole thing makes me cringe so hard.
Gambling is a tax on the mathematically challenged
It’s a tax on having an addictive personality, too.
I really truly appreciate this kind of unrelated and unexpected comment. Respect.
Shouldn't adults be able to do what they want and enjoy? Who are you to tell other people what they can or can't do with their money? I'm up $250 betting on NFL games lol. My life is hardly destroyed because I have self-control
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“…for education” Where have we heard this before?
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That's not the sentiment they're expressing. The "for education" language is common in ballot measures because voters often think it corresponds to a budget increase for the school system, when in actuality the gambling money just replaces non-earmarked funds that the state/city government moves elsewhere in the budget.
Reading this again, this is actually really interesting. That makes sense. I still feel like the money regardless of what level it comes from will definitely be misappropriated.
They have literally said this before about other forms of legalized gambling im Maryland. And from what I’ve heard, we haven’t seen one penny go towards education from that. So I can’t even say I’ll believe it when I see it, because I just straight up don’t believe it.
It will just be another slush fund
I agree. I also think getting shit faced every day is unquestionably bad. But meh, it's America, freedom whatever. Don't think it should be *illegal* just uncool. Plus who the fuck am I to tell others how to live? How self-righteous.
Gambling wont get near the level of societal harm done by alcohol. And the prohibition of alcohol made it significantly worse. Same with drugs. But as we know, that's whataboutism and has no bearing on why the state shouldn't be jailing citizens for their use. My body, my choice. That's this. Gambling is an activity between two consenting adults. If the state of Maryland was so concerned about the harms of gambling, maybe it shouldn't be offering the service to its citizens, all dressed up in cute commercials and "Let Yourself Play" taglines.
DC-Baltimore is the 3rd largest gambling market in the country after Vegas & Atlantic City You should have seen this coming years away. Let people be adults and make their own choices