man, who amongst us could have ever predicted that removing all of the barriers to gambling — up to and including even leaving your couch — would end up resulting in lots of people developing gambling problems
I know a guy who likes to play the horses. (Actually, I know a lot of such people, and I used to work in that business.) He’ll drive from New Haven to Saratoga for an afternoon at the track, but he will not create an online betting account. He knows himself too well. Smart guy.
I don't watch much sports anymore, so it was a helluva surprise while visiting my dad to see the pregame shows have segments centered around betting and sponsored by online sportsbooks. I knew it was going to be bad, but didn't think it'd get this bad this fast.
my first marriage was destroyed by sports gambling and that's a long time ago, when you really had to make the effort to gamble. it pains me to see how many lives are going to be ruined because gambling is so easy now. society was not ready for this
If we'd had this regulatory outlook (by the highest bidder) a few decades ago, we'd be on the third generation that grew up watching Joe Camel and the Camel Kids on Saturday mornings and then started dying of lung cancer before they hit 30.
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I think absence of community has been shown to be extremely influential on the development (and in particular the sustaining) of addictions. So it’s not just availability. It’s that the absence of barriers means you don’t have to talk to anyone about it and can spend all day alone with your problem.
damn that is just such a sad article. that poor man. he was exploited and the worst part is, the weakness they found to exploit was how much he loves his wife and kids, and he could fantasize about doing nice things for them with the money he was going to win. that's just tragic
I am starting to despise the endless onslaught of gambling ads but also do they not have to use cash online? I have to use cash to buy a five dollar lottery ticket?
i haven't really dug into it, but I suspect it's like a lot of legalized vices: it's not so much that more people have severe gambling problems, but the people who have problems with gambling now have much more severe problems. Instead of losing 100s of $ on mobile games, now's it's their house etc
I hope this is a lead paint generation, rather than creating an immortal, vampiric political lobby that we have not seen since the slave power.