OT: Online gambling article (in which Sparty is featured)

Yikes. Idk about schools officially endorsing betting. Hard pass for me. They make plenty of money anyways; no need to dabble in what some would consider predatory practices. 

This is the logical progression of when it becomes all about the money.  It's sad to see the educational institutions that we support with our tax dollars are teaching our kids to become gambling addicts.  Enough of them will suffer from the problem without being induced to start.

Meh. Where’s the outrage with beer sponsorships? Or, hell, Dr Pepper even - which as a sugary drink is a leading cause of heart disease which is the #1 cause of death in the US.

Gambling is a vice - like every other vice we have in society it can either be abused or enjoyed. Just like there are plenty of people who drink recreationally without any issue, there are plenty of people who gamble the same way...

spare me the pearl clutching.

Didn't we pass a law that banned credit card companies from recruiting college students to sign up. Universities encouraging students to sign up for betting apps seems just as bad.

Not your mother's NCAA college football.

Trigger warning for the NYT? What the hell kind of snowflakes are triggered by the NYT?

Two snippets I found interesting, the first part of promises that Gaming operators used to make the case for gambling in Michigan, and the second regarding whether or not high taxes on this kind of thing deter bettors.

... the American Gaming Association predicted that state legislators could expect to see more than $40 million a year in tax revenues. What has Michigan collected in the last year? Just $21 million in state and local taxes, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

and

...New York has seen so much betting — even with a high tax rate of 51 percent — that the state has collected an extraordinary $546 million in taxes in the first 10 months of this year.

I'm not an old guy yelling at a cloud, but I am here. Big picture wise, I believe that sports gambling is bad for society at large. The fury with which we all already follow Michigan football scaled out across P5 football and professional sports, that's just so much money we're dumping away for "entertainment" and what not. Sports at this high levels are already being subsidized so much by policy and our support, finding another effective way to pull funds out of people's pockets is bad form to me. I understand people have to make their own choices, can dig that, but the adds for sports gambling have exceeded critical mass. Every bus and bus stop, every single sports podcast, countless commercials on TV (streaming and classic), the radio. Now there are attempts at academic institutions to indoctrinate their students into the ecosystem? Not good, IMO. 

Without going hard politics on this one, I'd just like to note that there was a time, in my lifetime, when both left and right--and especially churches--were adamantly opposed. This story is really a piece of a still-larger story about what it has taken to buy cultural acceptance (maybe I should say buy-in).

Apart from the stories of families broken by this, the reach into particular communities, the idea that universities would play a role in getting our kids drawn in and potentially addicted--engrossed in something so far from their studies--is. . . painful.  

Speaking of bets and MSU

Never go all in on something with less than a 50% chance of winning just because it goes in your favor twice in a row.

Events are independent but will regress to their mean.

ie, Don’t lock into a 10 yr, $95mm bet when the known historical odds are worse than a coin flip, no matter how shiny recent outcomes appear.

I’ll give you even money that couch does not make it through the night.  

I thought the NYT coverage of online gambling and college athletics was eye-opening, but I didn't find it surprising given how normalized it's become. 

The only UM connection I could draw was from the one game I attended this year, which was MSU. Barstool, which is mentioned in the piece as being connected to the issue, had a significant presence--and audience--adjacent to the stadium on game day. Perhaps this is the norm; I only make it to one game a year and this was the first time I noticed their ESPB Gameday analog (i.e. stage show). 

Yeah, this is a hot button topic for me. I subscribe to the NYT, and saw the article yesterday. Pondered putting a link here, because of the MSU picture and connection, but decided against it. There are a lot of people here who are into gambling, and who am I to tell someone I don't know that they shouldn't gamble?

I want to reiterate that I'm not the morality police, and I have zero interest in telling students or alums what to do with their lives and what to do in their lives. But I am a preacher, and have seen what gambling can do. Had one member lose everything and commit suicide. Had another member, a retiree lose almost everything, to the point he and his wife had to sell their house and move into subsidized housing. It can be ugly. Very ugly.

Gambling, like many other things, is an addiction. Whether it is drinking, or gambling, or weed, or sex, or something else, most people are not controlled by addiction. I personally am not. But some are, and it can ruin their life. My adopted daughter, 21, is or was a heroin addict. I'm so thankful to God she is in a good place, and fighting the good fight, but addictions are ugly. She will struggle with this her entire life.

Thinking back to college days, it can be a challenging environment for an 18 year old with few or no restraints and guardrails. Whether it is beer or cocaine or sex or weed or gambling, it can quickly spiral out of control. I'm not completely naive:  these challenges have been around forever. My own fraternity on campus did really stupid things more than 100 years ago. This isn't new. But it seems to be ramping up more and more and more.

I detest the idea of everything being driven by money, and the idea of Universities entering into sordid partnerships just for the sake of more money. Of course, all of us need money to live, and money itself isn't evil. But when money and more money becomes the focus, it inevitably leads to things like partnerships with gambling companies. I suppose the next thing will be partnerships with pimps and brothels, to service the student body?

I really don't know the answer. But I don't want Michigan to add any advertising to the stadium. I don't want Budweiser tents inside the stadium and outside every gate. I don't want all the gambling sites to enter into partnerships with Michigan. I don't want weed dispensaries at the Big House, and a return to a blue haze covering the entire student section.

I just rewatched one of the corniest movies ever made, "It's a Wonderful Life." I'm a sucker for that movie, which is totally not how the world works. Still, think about "old man Potter." In the alternative picture of reality, Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville, and Main Street is covered with neon advertising bars and strip clubs and gambling. The reality is that Potter is the only one really getting wealthy. If you are a fan of the movie, you'll remember that Potter offers to hire Jimmy Stewart, a very attractive proposition to a young poor man. Stewart is tantalized by the prospect, but thinks about what it means, and angrily leaves Potter's office. I truly hope that when the Board of Regents are offered attractive financial propositions by gambling interests, they also walk away.

TL;DR. I too am not a fan of any partnerships with gambling interests.