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.
"We wait until Pandora's box is opened before we say, "Wow, maybe we should understand what's in that box." This is the story of humans on every problem." ~ Peter Singer
I like betting. I do not bet myself though. I own stocks of betting and gambling companies and enjoy their enormous dividends. That's the only sure way I know to win through betting. The government should make sure that no minors can access betting. Otherwise: It's a free country and people, including betters, are responsible for themselves and the consequences of their actions. And here's the difference to the opioid crisis. People start to bet on their own free will. But people get hooked on opioids by irresponsible doctors, they turn to when they are in pain and who cash in in their misery.
I support letting adults make adult decisions about how to spend their money, but we need to be honest about the nasty impact the gambling addict has on those close to them. As someone who’s been on both sides of the addiction fence -- I’m both an addict (now in long-term recovery) and family member of addicts -- this quote from the story states it well. “It has a ripple effect,” explained Jeffrey Derevensky, a psychologist at McGill University in Montreal, who specializes in high-risk behaviors. “Among those one percent, they’re negatively impacting five to seven other people. It affects partners and children and families and employers.”
I can’t think of a culture on an upward trajectory or on the cusp of a renaissance that promotes gambling and drug use as a means for good. I live in MO and when you walk through any store parking lots the smell of marajuana permeates from car windows. And we are a hop skip and a jump from Kansas where betting just became legal and it’s considered super cool. I wonder how long until we see schools improve from all this “good”?
The statements from Addabbo are chilling. It’s all about government - whether they are creating a problem or claiming they’re solving problems (many of which they created to begin with) government has to have a hand in it - but they don’t know where the money goes . What a waste of so much....money, time and people.
Gambling, opioid, alcohol and don't forget the iPhone. We are conditioned to be addicted. The sales of successful businesses are devoted to forever creating more ways to get people hooked and keep them that way.
Many of the problems inherent in our society are indeed due to the medicalization of morality and the utter abandonment of personal accountability. Most of the diagnosed cases of anxiety, depression, and yes, the absurd DSM diagnoses of gambling addiction and sex addiction are moral problems, not medical problems. Attempting to address these with psychiatrists (who have epically failed to demonstrate any biochemical underpinning for these disorders) and medications (which rarely work and when they do, it is unclear how they work) is bound to fail. Human beings are not animals, there is more to us than the material. Ignoring the "soul", or however you wish to term our unique, non-physical mind, will lead to the continued disaster that is the mental health state in this country. If mental illness were indeed purely physical/material, it should be prevalent in the animal population too, and we would expect to see not infrequent animal suicides among other manifestations which are absurd to even contemplate.
"While the public tends to see other addictions as chemical—in no small part, presumably, because those addictions involve putting things in your body—gambling is considered a “moral weakness,” Derevensky said. "
I am 56 yrs old and I have never known anyone who gambled, apart from a tiny number of people who bought a lottery ticket at the store once a month. I used to give money to a secretary at work who went around collecting donations for a state lottery ticket, because I didn’t want to be antisocial.
It sounds like a terrifying problem. Alcohol and drug users can only consume so much, which places a spending limit on addiction. But, gambling has no financial limit. States need to discourage gambling, rather than promote it. Gov should restrict gambling apps and internet access. I type this while being “anti-censorship.”
I agree with you that its a big problem that we are miseducating the youth & leaving them a ton of debt. Whenever I talk to young people, I encourage them to avoid debt & not waste $100,000's on a degree just to party. Many people go to college for the wrong reasons including their parents wanting to brag. Quite frankly, if my kids don't go to college but had a different career path in a trade, I would be more than happy.
"We've outsourced jobs, but Americans are happy to buy cheap goods at Wal-Mart or Target, all "Made in China". " This is a phrase said by Corporations in order to lie to the American people & confuse the American people. "We are doing something we want to do to make ourselves $$ but we will pretend this is something you want" Don't fall for their lies.
Two points: 1---most of the items I buy which are not made in China cost roughly the same. Maybe some a tad more but not by much. Corporations will charge $50 for x item b/c market research says consumers will pay that price, but its a difference of Margins for them. The independent, family owned companies I buy from make a profit, but have smaller margins & no investors to pay out. 2- Most Americans want jobs & don't want their jobs outsourced. Instead of paying people welfare, we should give them jobs. I despise companies like Bombas Socks which charge $40 for 1 pair of socks, Made in China, then donate a pair of socks to poor people. Instead of donating socks & making socks in China & charging $40 for an overpriced sock, how about doing what HUE Socks does: charge $7 for 6 pairs of well-made Made in USA socks & give people jobs instead of handouts?
Also the really, really cheap Garbagy items made in China often break immediately upon first use. In which case the consumer keeps buying it over & over again, spending more money in the long run, then if they had just bought a good quality item in the first place.
Like garbagy $3 flip flops that break the first time you wear them. I will never make that mistake ever again. I buy Okabashi Made in USA flip flops for $20 that last a long time.
Overall a good article. It's a pity that the talented author appears to know little about sports or sports gambling. For example, we are not in either the NBA nor the NHL "finals." We are in the "playoffs" or the "postseason." The last round of the playoffs constitute the finals. Further, the "over / under" is a wager regarding the total number of points scored in a game, or in the example above, the first half of a game. You do not divide by two, nor do you score three hundred points in one half of basketball ;)
That said, the article raises substantial concerns - and gambling can indeed be as addicting as any drug. Simultaneously, I do not believe prohibition has ever worked - not for alcohol, drugs, abstinence only education, or anything else. People have always gambled and always will.
What IS new is the explosion of technology and the access to legalized gambling on any phone. We will indeed see a huge increase in problems because of all the new laws, technology, and subsequent easy access. Similarly, there was an explosion in alcohol related problems following the repeal of prohibition, and then it leveled off. There was an initial spike in cannabis use after legalization, and that too leveled off and even fell. There are fewer juvenile cannabis users in my state now than there were when it was illegal.
My solution is to a) recognize that prohibition doesn't work b) technology will not slow down c) there will be a rapid and frightening increase in problem gambling as it proliferates across technology, and then d) it will level off and even fall as the "shiny" wears off and people realize the only ones who win long term are the books.
Legalize it. Regulate it. And take a substantial chunk of the inevitable profits from the books and use them to fund education and treatment programs for those experiencing problems. That's what works and preserves free markets and liberties.
I live in SF and it smells like marijuana smoke on many streets, BART (subway) stations and trains. Use has not leveled off. Similar experience when I visited LA in March.
"We wait until Pandora's box is opened before we say, "Wow, maybe we should understand what's in that box." This is the story of humans on every problem." ~ Peter Singer
I like betting. I do not bet myself though. I own stocks of betting and gambling companies and enjoy their enormous dividends. That's the only sure way I know to win through betting. The government should make sure that no minors can access betting. Otherwise: It's a free country and people, including betters, are responsible for themselves and the consequences of their actions. And here's the difference to the opioid crisis. People start to bet on their own free will. But people get hooked on opioids by irresponsible doctors, they turn to when they are in pain and who cash in in their misery.
We can abort an unborn at 9 months.......but this article implies we shouldn't gamble on the Yankee/Red Sox game.
Leave us alone...........
I support letting adults make adult decisions about how to spend their money, but we need to be honest about the nasty impact the gambling addict has on those close to them. As someone who’s been on both sides of the addiction fence -- I’m both an addict (now in long-term recovery) and family member of addicts -- this quote from the story states it well. “It has a ripple effect,” explained Jeffrey Derevensky, a psychologist at McGill University in Montreal, who specializes in high-risk behaviors. “Among those one percent, they’re negatively impacting five to seven other people. It affects partners and children and families and employers.”
And what if it leads to a Black Sox 2.0 scandal? The sports leagues are such hypocrites! I say, pardon Pete Rose, put him in the HOF.
I can’t think of a culture on an upward trajectory or on the cusp of a renaissance that promotes gambling and drug use as a means for good. I live in MO and when you walk through any store parking lots the smell of marajuana permeates from car windows. And we are a hop skip and a jump from Kansas where betting just became legal and it’s considered super cool. I wonder how long until we see schools improve from all this “good”?
The statements from Addabbo are chilling. It’s all about government - whether they are creating a problem or claiming they’re solving problems (many of which they created to begin with) government has to have a hand in it - but they don’t know where the money goes . What a waste of so much....money, time and people.
It turns out that everything in America is for sale, including our very souls ...
Gambling, opioid, alcohol and don't forget the iPhone. We are conditioned to be addicted. The sales of successful businesses are devoted to forever creating more ways to get people hooked and keep them that way.
Many of the problems inherent in our society are indeed due to the medicalization of morality and the utter abandonment of personal accountability. Most of the diagnosed cases of anxiety, depression, and yes, the absurd DSM diagnoses of gambling addiction and sex addiction are moral problems, not medical problems. Attempting to address these with psychiatrists (who have epically failed to demonstrate any biochemical underpinning for these disorders) and medications (which rarely work and when they do, it is unclear how they work) is bound to fail. Human beings are not animals, there is more to us than the material. Ignoring the "soul", or however you wish to term our unique, non-physical mind, will lead to the continued disaster that is the mental health state in this country. If mental illness were indeed purely physical/material, it should be prevalent in the animal population too, and we would expect to see not infrequent animal suicides among other manifestations which are absurd to even contemplate.
"While the public tends to see other addictions as chemical—in no small part, presumably, because those addictions involve putting things in your body—gambling is considered a “moral weakness,” Derevensky said. "
I am 56 yrs old and I have never known anyone who gambled, apart from a tiny number of people who bought a lottery ticket at the store once a month. I used to give money to a secretary at work who went around collecting donations for a state lottery ticket, because I didn’t want to be antisocial.
It sounds like a terrifying problem. Alcohol and drug users can only consume so much, which places a spending limit on addiction. But, gambling has no financial limit. States need to discourage gambling, rather than promote it. Gov should restrict gambling apps and internet access. I type this while being “anti-censorship.”
Excellent read. Thank you..
“Like a Video Game”, he nails it
I agree with you that its a big problem that we are miseducating the youth & leaving them a ton of debt. Whenever I talk to young people, I encourage them to avoid debt & not waste $100,000's on a degree just to party. Many people go to college for the wrong reasons including their parents wanting to brag. Quite frankly, if my kids don't go to college but had a different career path in a trade, I would be more than happy.
"We've outsourced jobs, but Americans are happy to buy cheap goods at Wal-Mart or Target, all "Made in China". " This is a phrase said by Corporations in order to lie to the American people & confuse the American people. "We are doing something we want to do to make ourselves $$ but we will pretend this is something you want" Don't fall for their lies.
Two points: 1---most of the items I buy which are not made in China cost roughly the same. Maybe some a tad more but not by much. Corporations will charge $50 for x item b/c market research says consumers will pay that price, but its a difference of Margins for them. The independent, family owned companies I buy from make a profit, but have smaller margins & no investors to pay out. 2- Most Americans want jobs & don't want their jobs outsourced. Instead of paying people welfare, we should give them jobs. I despise companies like Bombas Socks which charge $40 for 1 pair of socks, Made in China, then donate a pair of socks to poor people. Instead of donating socks & making socks in China & charging $40 for an overpriced sock, how about doing what HUE Socks does: charge $7 for 6 pairs of well-made Made in USA socks & give people jobs instead of handouts?
Also the really, really cheap Garbagy items made in China often break immediately upon first use. In which case the consumer keeps buying it over & over again, spending more money in the long run, then if they had just bought a good quality item in the first place.
Like garbagy $3 flip flops that break the first time you wear them. I will never make that mistake ever again. I buy Okabashi Made in USA flip flops for $20 that last a long time.
Overall a good article. It's a pity that the talented author appears to know little about sports or sports gambling. For example, we are not in either the NBA nor the NHL "finals." We are in the "playoffs" or the "postseason." The last round of the playoffs constitute the finals. Further, the "over / under" is a wager regarding the total number of points scored in a game, or in the example above, the first half of a game. You do not divide by two, nor do you score three hundred points in one half of basketball ;)
That said, the article raises substantial concerns - and gambling can indeed be as addicting as any drug. Simultaneously, I do not believe prohibition has ever worked - not for alcohol, drugs, abstinence only education, or anything else. People have always gambled and always will.
What IS new is the explosion of technology and the access to legalized gambling on any phone. We will indeed see a huge increase in problems because of all the new laws, technology, and subsequent easy access. Similarly, there was an explosion in alcohol related problems following the repeal of prohibition, and then it leveled off. There was an initial spike in cannabis use after legalization, and that too leveled off and even fell. There are fewer juvenile cannabis users in my state now than there were when it was illegal.
My solution is to a) recognize that prohibition doesn't work b) technology will not slow down c) there will be a rapid and frightening increase in problem gambling as it proliferates across technology, and then d) it will level off and even fall as the "shiny" wears off and people realize the only ones who win long term are the books.
Legalize it. Regulate it. And take a substantial chunk of the inevitable profits from the books and use them to fund education and treatment programs for those experiencing problems. That's what works and preserves free markets and liberties.
I live in SF and it smells like marijuana smoke on many streets, BART (subway) stations and trains. Use has not leveled off. Similar experience when I visited LA in March.
Brian is “gambling sober”, but also “won $120,000” last month. Does no one read at these articles before publishing them?