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Asleep at the Wheel
I have recently been a participant in several discussions and debates related to the already vast and spiraling amount of online gambling on professional sports, increasingly on college athletics, and now even on the outcomes of everyday future events through “prediction markets.”
Take note, almost every other ad working to establish online gambling as “mainstream” is directed at completely inexperienced gamblers. Many of these people ultimately lose a lot of money. Some who get caught up in this gambling spiral end up losing their homes, their marriages, retirement accounts, other assets, and even their livelihoods. And from my experience so far, I am afraid this is going to adversely affect more of the blue-collar crowd—the category most folks working in “trades” fall into.
To make matters worse, various gambling terms—“over/under,” “spread,” and others are now being embedded in mainstream pre-game television show dialog and, like gambling itself, they are seemingly permeating every corner of the internet.
I fully appreciate that times change, that broadcasters are all about “content,” and, I feel sure, the networks and streaming services receive lucrative compensation. However, promotion of gambling via commercials during broadcasts should be banned, the same as cigarette ads are banned from broadcasts. Unfortunately, due to powerful opposing forces and economic constraints, there’s a long way to go before such action is seen.