Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Mistake

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5 points·Clubber··5 comments

Reminds me of how casinos in Vega hate when there are conference events on for science heavy crowd or skeptics groups. The guests know that gambling is a bust so they spend almost nothing on gambling and just use the hotel rooms and restaurants.

All gambling relies on folks not being familiar with mathematical odds combined with a little sense of being more lucky and/or smarter than the gambling system. Many in the space like to say it is "just entertainment" and that people should be free to do what they want. but at a certain point it is just exploiting peoples ignorance of what is being presented.

"Vegas is the only place where a 98% return is considered a good deal" - Penn Jillette.

Here in Victoria, Australia there have been many calls for changes to the system but for those in power, the tax revenue from gambling is so high that they wouldn't date cut it. A grave predicament in action.

Original source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/09/legal-spor... (5 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41626714

Simple but good surface article. I wonder how much the games themselves will be compromised. It will happen.

If athletic performers may be convinced to "throw" a game with a financial incentive, could employees of publicly traded businesses also be convinced to "throw" a quarter or product launch with a financial incentive?

I am confident that this happens all the time. Note that a bad actor does not have to completely change the outcome, but can "shave points" so that the outcome is not as one sided. Every generation has to re-learn this. Every generation has the arrogance that they will not repeat the problems of their predecessors (if they even know).

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