One topic I've wanted to discuss on this blog for a while is the rise of sports gambling. During the last year or so I've had several unpublished draft blogposts that eventually got deleted and sent off to the ether.
The reason being is that it's such a multi-faceted topic that it's honestly hard to cover without the post getting too long that I lose track of what I'm even trying to say.
Before going further let me just state that I do try to keep a relatively neutral look on this whole thing. I personally don't gamble. I don't really condone using gambling apps (hence why I won't name drop any, no free ads folks) but I'm not a prune that's going to "tut tut" people that do either. That said gambling is always going to have its risks. Gambling additions are bad and lots of people are affected by it (studies show males especially are more likely to gamble and have issues), hopefully they do get the help and resources they need to recover. Not really sure if stating these is doing a whole lot but it'd feel kinda weird if these weren't in here somewhere.
This is also why a lot of those drafts in the past got deleted. This topic can be heavy and some parts require being handled with extreme care, since it doesn't take long to find horror stories of how gambling addictions just completely ruined people's lives. Then you have other parts that can be approached a lot more casually.
Like the way sports gambling took advantage of the chaos that took over the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and started making headway into mainstream circles through easily accessible mobile apps and eventually ended up in bed with sports leagues. Gone are the days when the law and sports leagues would shun gambling outlets, now the whole sports ecosystem from the leagues/teams/stadiums to even media outlets talking about sports like news sites/radio/podcasts/YouTube videos are all dependent on and sponsored by the same gambling outlets you hear name dropped over and over again. That's also to say nothing of how gambling odds are prominently shown on sports networks now.
The story of how these gambling outlets got to where they are is not all that surprising once you realize that people wanted to cash in at a time of immense fear and uncertainty. Several states were desperate to generate more tax revenue. The leagues were anxious and open to new revenue streams as they grapple with the slow death of cable TV and the lower profitability of streaming (also quite a coinkydink but illegal pirated sports streaming is on the rise too). Everyday people were also losing jobs and income due to lockdown measures, on top of the usual thing where the cost of living is exceeding wages.
Granted, gambling on sports have been going on forever in the darkness/more hush hush, or among coworkers/friends/family but I'll always be convinced that a lot more people started delving it in 2020-2022 in the wake of the economy being warped by COVID-19, combined with how much easier it became to gamble at all.
There's a lot more at play but the gist of how sports gambling became ubiquitous with modern sports fandom basically comes down to that.
Which then brings us to the here and now.
This is often presented through the lens of the rise of gambling addictions and a growing number of people shouldering gambling debt. It's been reported that gambling addictions in general have steadily risen since 2018. Obviously not even people in sports are immune as a lot of events in 2024 have shown (and will continue to show given how those are never going away).
So with the past established, the present on-going, what happens in the future?
Honestly the vibe I'm getting is that nobody really wants to know.
Kinda fitting since the whole game (for lack of a better term) is to gamble for some semblance of a future, not to think that hard about one.
But there are a few things that I've seen get brought up (along with some of my own predictions thrown in just because).
- The legalization of online casinos
Cited as the ultimate end goal for all of the entities behind the gambling apps, given the way things are headed it's hard to imagine this isn't in play and coming eventually.
- Revised regulations on sports gambling
Either the courts get tougher, or it gets much more lax and leads to the online casino thing.
- Improved officiating and heightened standards for umpires and referees going forward
Umpires and referees are under a new level of scrutiny and while it's due to social media, if you look a bit deeper you'll see it's also because every call they make is could potentially have millions on the line. The argument that every call needs to be as accurate is possible is technically correct, but the reason why people want that probably has more to do with their parlays.
- Some gambler who bet everything and lost is going to shoot an athlete
I hope I am VERY wrong on this but I don't think highly of people enough to not at least consider how this might happen one day. Note: to make it very clear I do not condone violence. Also not fun to think that such a tragedy wouldn't change anything either as the discourse would get exhausting by design.
I've kinda condensed and simplified so much of this but going back to what I was saying at the start, I kinda had to. Just the history and context on how those gambling apps started popping up everywhere would take forever to write. By the time you get to where things are now (think like post-2022 to today) everyone is tired and could use a coffee break. This is an on-going human story, which in turn means it's messy and has a shit ton of layers. But it's also weirdly simple since it's basically just a story about greed.
In the end I'm not sure if the tone of this post should've been a lot more like addressing a problem that needs to be fixed. But a big reason for the past/present/future structure was because, well, I feel like what would be publicly perceived as real problems are yet to come. People being in immense debt and addicted to stuff that's bad for them despite whatever that is always being sold to them is not new, as heartless as that may seem. Society has also long accepted that a few people making lots of money while even more people lose all of theirs is reasonable. That's just the way things are.
Honestly this is just my read but given how historically tween boys look at what's popular among early 20-somethings to tell them what's cool and shit, it wouldn't really surprise me if they considered getting into this shit to make them feel more like adults. You can say this shit wouldn't be legal but when there's money to be made, nothing is ever truly off the table.
Guess I could also wonder out loud if we'll ever see ads for gambling apps Fanatics owns/is partnered with show up in packs of baseball cards. Or maybe logos in the outfield start showing up on cards in the background. Maybe Vegas already has the odds on that.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care.