Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

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Sports betting in casinos has been around for a long time in Vegas but it never caught on the way, say, slot machines have. For a long time most people who bet on sports bet illegally by calling their bookie on the phone. Legal sports betting in Nevada made it possible for people who set lines and point spreads to hang their shingle even if the betting parlors were poorly attended.

The UK experience has shown how sports betting is popular as something spontaneous that fits into life, watching the game, etc. Mobile scratches that itch. For that matter, Sinclair broadcasting is interested in the ATSC 3 standard because it lets you transfer a web "player" to a TV set that could support sports betting through the remote control:

https://www.tvrev.com/news/broadcasting-atsc-3-gambling-nab-...

For many people sports betting is good clean fun that helps people get more fun out of the game, but for other people it is a dangerous behavioral addiction.

The thing about addiction is that addicts really need to get away from temptation to come clean. It is easy to keep away from the casino but with gambling in your pocket, advertised at the ballpark, advertised on the broadcast and even embedded in the broadcast, it's going to be very hard for people... A person with a gambling problem may have to stop watching sports entirely, which is a shame.

> it lets you transfer a web "player" to a TV set that could support sports betting through the remote control

The problem with that is the broadcast delays; live betting will always be as fast as possible (so that people who are physically at the match don't get much of a window to place a "guaranteed winner" bet, e.g. "next player to score"), but the various broadcast methods can add up to maybe 20 seconds' delay and most people probably wouldn't want the betting overlay to tell them that someone had scored before the TV pictures show them the action.

>Sports betting not catching on in Vegas...

You have clearly never been to the sports book at Circa Casino in Las Vegas. The big screen is three stories high.

[1]: https://www.circasports.com/

It's not the size of the screen it is the size of the crowd.

It's probably an artistic choice but note that the seats in front of that screen are empty in the photo on that page.

There is an impressive looking sportsbook at the rural racino with huge TVs near me, I wind up there sometimes on "any given Sunday" because my extended family likes going there and I like to play the track when I know I the odds are in my favor, and it's never very busy.

A government list of people banned from sports betting seems to be an interesting idea. Obviously there are offshore platforms that would ignore the list, but the point is just to raise the transaction costs a little. I wouldn't like to see courts force people to sign up, but I could see joining the list as a prerequisite to rehab and personally know a few addicts that would sign up when they have support so they don't fall when they're at their lowest.

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