A day will come, likely not too far in the future, when Americans will realize that sports betting via an app on their phones is an unmitigated disaster — a highly addictive, financially destructive force in the lives of our citizens, and specifically, in the lives of young men.
We’ve placed a heroin-laced casino in their pockets in a time when affordability is falling out of reach, the economy is working less and less for a huge number of Americans, and young men are feeling more disenfranchised and disillusioned by the day.
A crushing wave of financial ruin is on the horizon. Why we are ignoring it is beyond me.
I’m constantly talking to Charlie about the insidiousness of gambling. I fear for his generation and their financial stability.
It’s unbelievable what is happening.
And when that moment of reckoning comes, many people will be blamed. The owners of the apps and the lawmakers who allowed this to happen will naturally take on most of the responsibility, but so, too. will the people who are cashing in on the advertising of this addictive monster.
They will live to regret it.
They may also be despised for it.
I can’t believe they don’t see it already. I can’t believe how many people are attaching their names to something as clearly destructive as sports betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel.
People like Jon Hamm, Kevin Hart, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, Jamie Foxx, and so many others will almost certainly look back on their support of these institutions and wonder if the money they were paid in the service of addicting others and creating greater financial ruin was worth it.
If they are lucky, that regret will be internal and personal and not publicly scathing.
When celebrities and athletes like Larry David, Tom Brady, and Shaq attached their names to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto-conspiracy FTX in 2021 and 2022, they were ridiculed when the company collapsed and was revealed to be a massive fraud and a misuse of customer funds.
Many of them were later named in lawsuits over promoting FTX.
But in the case of FTX, investors were ultimately made whole. The average American was unaffected by FTX’s fraud and subsequent collapse.
The damage was contained and ultimately repaired.
In the case of sports betting, things will be very different.
Sports betting apps are used by about 10% of Americans and 25% of young men today, and those numbers continue to grow. Millions of Americans are losing money making bets on the outcomes of sports, and now, with the advent of PolyMarket and Kalshi, everything else.
And losing money is exactly what is happening, because sports betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel actually restrict or cancel the accounts of successful gamblers.
If you’re winning on these platforms, you will soon be throttled, meaning your bet sizes will be limited, certain wagers will be refused, and accounts will be suspended or even closed, meaning that the 25% of young men who use these apps are losing money in the long run. If they weren’t, their ability to place bets would be hindered or canceled outright, meaning sports betting on these platforms is almost always a losing proposition.
We also know that gambling is addictive. It’s financially ruinous for the addicts and their families. And though I’m not opposed to gambling, I’m deeply opposed to the ease with which sports betting has been made, the design of the apps to make gambling more addictive, and the massive advertising campaigns designed to normalize sports betting as something everyone does as a part of watching sports.
When it comes to acquiring and hooking their customers, these apps are shooting fish in a barrel.
These celebrity endorsements are not helping, and the celebrities should know better. Lending their name to these products only exacerbates the pending financial doom.
If they are less lucky, the public will see their support as a money grab at the expense of those less fortunate.
If they are less lucky, they may find themselves named in massive class action lawsuits in the future as people, and especially young men, find themselves struggling with addiction and financial ruin.
Online gambling via apps like DraftKings and FanDuel is disastrous for America. In a country where our K-shaped economy is rewarding the wealthy and punishing the middle class, sports betting is a siphoning of wages that no American can afford.
I wish these celebrities would open their eyes and close their mouths.
