The online gambling industry is profiting off addiction ‘the same way the Sackler family profited off of opioids.’ Only this time the pushers include state governments.
“I’ve had colleagues come up to me with concerns about gambling,” Addabbo said, “and then I tell them about the $900 million in revenue for education, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is great!’" - Every time I read something like this it makes me scratch my head. Seems like they would say "Oh my God, they are getting all that money in addition to the tax revenue they were already receiving, and our fifth graders are reading at kindergarten level?" The system is broken and clearly more money - even tons of money - isn't going to fix that.
Like legalizing marijuana and CBD, the revenue is more important than people’s wellbeing. Govt intrusion in life will never stop as long as $$$ flies in. Horrible!!
Prohibition never works, but the state has no business being involved in this or any other enterprise. "We are here to help the poor, that is why we created the lottery for them". The examples of government creating new problems and dependencies are too numerous to list.
I personally think the state should stay out of any business that makes a profit, such as gambling. That being said, everyone who is placing bets is an adult and it’s their personal responsibility to manage their lives and money.
The issue I have is the revenue that the state receives from the gambling and lottery always seem to disappear in the budget. The lottery was sold as “money for the schools!” Gambling was sold with the same promise. Why then is it that the school districts in Ohio are begging the residents to vote yes for school levy’s? Where is the state money for the schools being spent? My district has fat to cut in the upper administration level but they are cutting bussing and implementing
“pay-to-play” for extracurricular activities. The state hoards my taxes for schools and the district leaders waste money on items that don’t teach the kids. The kids and parents are stuck in the middle with very little hope. Voting new people in office is always the response I get, but in my area, voter turnout is awful. Most political problems are discussed on Facebook by keyboard warriors with zero guts to actually vote for a change.
Sorry for the whining. My opinion is that legalizing everything for the sake of increasing revenues for the government will always lead to greedy politicians voting for more spending on useless things.
Very very true. To make things worse, unlike drugs, there seem to be no restrictions for gambling ads. They are everywhere. I am now hearing announcers, within games, talk about situational betting opportunities. Someone who wants to quit basically needs to switch off all media to avoid getting sucked in.
This started much earlier than the author claims. When NJ legalized casino gambling (1980?) other states then saw revenue. And then came state lotteries replacing the old mob numbers betting. It was all downhill from there.
I am old enough to remember when betting was confined to 4 things; Vegas, the horses, bookies and regular card games. To get involved in any required either effort or knowledge so entry for a potential addict was harder. Now, the addiction can find you in your cell with customer support to help if you have problems injecting the poison into your veins. Ah, progress!
“Before you remove a fence, stop and ask yourself why it was put there in the first place.” - G. K. Chesterton
Government never considers the consequences of their actions, they only see the revenue those actions generate. And government has an insatiable appetite for revenue.
It's not just sports gambling. Betting machines--once exclusively found in casinos--have been popping up like poisonous mushrooms in local bars. This week, I saw billboards go up for a local "gaming parlor and pub."
As long as it took some effort to get to where instant-fix gambling was legal, gambling addiction was limited to a few desperate people. The easier it becomes to win or (more likely lose) a lot of money in a few minutes, the more people get sucked in. With ads for gambling apps (including online slots!) popping up on people's phones, it isn't hard to turn a person who likes playing games on their phone into a gambling addict.
When I was a child, you had to go to Nevada to gamble that easily. I've watched for decades as gambling has been increasingly promoted by the state: casinos on Indian reservations, lotteries, casinos on riverboats, more lotteries, casinos anywhere, and now gaming machines outside of casinos.
As usual, government is harming people in the name of "helping" them.
While being an addictive activity for some not all participants suffer. If you’re looking for the enabler, which is the ultimate beneficiary of legal gambling, look at the our state governments. They too have an addiction to spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave.
Not one jurisdiction has limited any advertising and it’s rebate focused marketing to new clients.
This is not like OxyContin and the manufacturers who benefited from addiction. States do no not tax pharmaceutical products. Well not yet anyway!
Is anyone surprised that government is muscling aside the mob in every vice imaginable.? The took over the numbers racket with lotteries. They got into the drug business with legalized marijuana. And now they're getting into sports betting. All taking advantage of the worst elements of humanity and profiting from it. What's next, prostitution?
I've called our ruling cabal a "gangster government." Can anyone prove me wrong? John Adams said our Constitution was fit only for a religious and moral people. Even if we were, is our Constitution fit for an aggressively secular and immoral government? Isn't it long past time to clean out the swamps in DC and the state capitals and send these vermin packing?
If you want the state to ban everything that’s “addictive” you are looking at a VERY long list: nicotine, sugar, gambling, porn, social media, gaming, etc. No one wants to live in that country. Our Government and culture should promote virtue: education, work, honesty, saving money, marriage, children to married couples, etc. our govt should not promote gambling(lotteries) or any vices
We combined the addictiveness of smart phones with the addictiveness of gambling and then flog it almost 24/7 in ads during sports events…. What could possibly go wrong?
Through our entire existence as humans we have gambled, drank alcohol and drugged ourselves. Our entire existence. It is fundamental. In a capitalistic society, that means businesses that push it, and a very small amount of customers getting in trouble with it. We have tried prohibition and mass incarceration to no avail. What has always been assumed to be more of a male issue than female when it comes to gambling might not be so apparent, if you have ever gone to a casino and looked at the amount of older women who sit there for hours playing those games of chance. We usually end up just taxing it and trying to make something good come out of it.
We live in an almost totally addicted society: gambling, narcotics, smoking, alcohol, food, laziness, antidepressants, anti anxiety meds, every child who cannot sit still has ADHD (I know there are some children with real problems but I believe it's overused), social media, TIKTOK, FACEBOOK, TWITTER and on and on. People are LACKING PURPOSE, GOALS, DREAMS, CONNECTIONS
“I’ve had colleagues come up to me with concerns about gambling,” Addabbo said, “and then I tell them about the $900 million in revenue for education, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is great!’" - Every time I read something like this it makes me scratch my head. Seems like they would say "Oh my God, they are getting all that money in addition to the tax revenue they were already receiving, and our fifth graders are reading at kindergarten level?" The system is broken and clearly more money - even tons of money - isn't going to fix that.
Like legalizing marijuana and CBD, the revenue is more important than people’s wellbeing. Govt intrusion in life will never stop as long as $$$ flies in. Horrible!!
Prohibition never works, but the state has no business being involved in this or any other enterprise. "We are here to help the poor, that is why we created the lottery for them". The examples of government creating new problems and dependencies are too numerous to list.
Remember kids, these guys are not gambling addicts. They are persons with betting dependences!
I personally think the state should stay out of any business that makes a profit, such as gambling. That being said, everyone who is placing bets is an adult and it’s their personal responsibility to manage their lives and money.
The issue I have is the revenue that the state receives from the gambling and lottery always seem to disappear in the budget. The lottery was sold as “money for the schools!” Gambling was sold with the same promise. Why then is it that the school districts in Ohio are begging the residents to vote yes for school levy’s? Where is the state money for the schools being spent? My district has fat to cut in the upper administration level but they are cutting bussing and implementing
“pay-to-play” for extracurricular activities. The state hoards my taxes for schools and the district leaders waste money on items that don’t teach the kids. The kids and parents are stuck in the middle with very little hope. Voting new people in office is always the response I get, but in my area, voter turnout is awful. Most political problems are discussed on Facebook by keyboard warriors with zero guts to actually vote for a change.
Sorry for the whining. My opinion is that legalizing everything for the sake of increasing revenues for the government will always lead to greedy politicians voting for more spending on useless things.
Very very true. To make things worse, unlike drugs, there seem to be no restrictions for gambling ads. They are everywhere. I am now hearing announcers, within games, talk about situational betting opportunities. Someone who wants to quit basically needs to switch off all media to avoid getting sucked in.
This started much earlier than the author claims. When NJ legalized casino gambling (1980?) other states then saw revenue. And then came state lotteries replacing the old mob numbers betting. It was all downhill from there.
I am old enough to remember when betting was confined to 4 things; Vegas, the horses, bookies and regular card games. To get involved in any required either effort or knowledge so entry for a potential addict was harder. Now, the addiction can find you in your cell with customer support to help if you have problems injecting the poison into your veins. Ah, progress!
“Before you remove a fence, stop and ask yourself why it was put there in the first place.” - G. K. Chesterton
Government never considers the consequences of their actions, they only see the revenue those actions generate. And government has an insatiable appetite for revenue.
It's not just sports gambling. Betting machines--once exclusively found in casinos--have been popping up like poisonous mushrooms in local bars. This week, I saw billboards go up for a local "gaming parlor and pub."
As long as it took some effort to get to where instant-fix gambling was legal, gambling addiction was limited to a few desperate people. The easier it becomes to win or (more likely lose) a lot of money in a few minutes, the more people get sucked in. With ads for gambling apps (including online slots!) popping up on people's phones, it isn't hard to turn a person who likes playing games on their phone into a gambling addict.
When I was a child, you had to go to Nevada to gamble that easily. I've watched for decades as gambling has been increasingly promoted by the state: casinos on Indian reservations, lotteries, casinos on riverboats, more lotteries, casinos anywhere, and now gaming machines outside of casinos.
As usual, government is harming people in the name of "helping" them.
Why can’t we just wipe out gamblers’ debts they way we can students’?
"There’s talk about the antidepressant escitalopram helping (although the Food and Drug Administration has yet to sign off)."
Cool. Big Pharma to the rescue.
While being an addictive activity for some not all participants suffer. If you’re looking for the enabler, which is the ultimate beneficiary of legal gambling, look at the our state governments. They too have an addiction to spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave.
Not one jurisdiction has limited any advertising and it’s rebate focused marketing to new clients.
This is not like OxyContin and the manufacturers who benefited from addiction. States do no not tax pharmaceutical products. Well not yet anyway!
Is anyone surprised that government is muscling aside the mob in every vice imaginable.? The took over the numbers racket with lotteries. They got into the drug business with legalized marijuana. And now they're getting into sports betting. All taking advantage of the worst elements of humanity and profiting from it. What's next, prostitution?
I've called our ruling cabal a "gangster government." Can anyone prove me wrong? John Adams said our Constitution was fit only for a religious and moral people. Even if we were, is our Constitution fit for an aggressively secular and immoral government? Isn't it long past time to clean out the swamps in DC and the state capitals and send these vermin packing?
If you want the state to ban everything that’s “addictive” you are looking at a VERY long list: nicotine, sugar, gambling, porn, social media, gaming, etc. No one wants to live in that country. Our Government and culture should promote virtue: education, work, honesty, saving money, marriage, children to married couples, etc. our govt should not promote gambling(lotteries) or any vices
We combined the addictiveness of smart phones with the addictiveness of gambling and then flog it almost 24/7 in ads during sports events…. What could possibly go wrong?
😢
Through our entire existence as humans we have gambled, drank alcohol and drugged ourselves. Our entire existence. It is fundamental. In a capitalistic society, that means businesses that push it, and a very small amount of customers getting in trouble with it. We have tried prohibition and mass incarceration to no avail. What has always been assumed to be more of a male issue than female when it comes to gambling might not be so apparent, if you have ever gone to a casino and looked at the amount of older women who sit there for hours playing those games of chance. We usually end up just taxing it and trying to make something good come out of it.
We live in an almost totally addicted society: gambling, narcotics, smoking, alcohol, food, laziness, antidepressants, anti anxiety meds, every child who cannot sit still has ADHD (I know there are some children with real problems but I believe it's overused), social media, TIKTOK, FACEBOOK, TWITTER and on and on. People are LACKING PURPOSE, GOALS, DREAMS, CONNECTIONS