Sports betting is a practice that millions of people participate in to have their own stakes in the game. Tackling the issue from this perspective, it seems like harmless recreation. For the first time ever this year in Upstate New York, sports betting became legal, allowing betting in 11 designated casinos. However, when you look at the issue on a societal level, it’s clear that the activity awakens a vulnerability toward addictive tendencies and mental and social health crises.

There are tales from cultures all around the world that revolve heavily around fate-tempting. It’s a fundamental urge.

“There’s really no reason to try to profit off of sports gambling,” said Jeremy Losak, an assistant professor of sport management and betting market expert. “Because if your goal is an investment strategy, the returns in investing in the stock market is a lot higher than the returns in sports gambling.”

Yet, the activity finds a way to grip millions of Americans every year, some of whom treat it as a stroke of good fortune waiting to happen. The solution here won’t be found in banning the practice in its entirety. Outright prohibition of hobbies people enjoy has historically led to organized crime and underground markets that ultimately fare worse for everyone involved.

The solution is found in education and in the government properly regulating the activity while spreading risk-awareness and providing aid to those suffering from gambling addiction.

Gambling, under any medium, speaks to the inherent human longing for hope. But it’s not real hope. It’s hope in something that doesn’t exist. The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) reported that the average annual cost associated with gambling (crime, addiction, and bankruptcy) is roughly $17 billion. Because of this, major depressive tendencies are linked to upwards of 76% of gambling addicts.

Losak addressed courses of action that the government can take to limit the problems which arise due to gambling addiction. “They should approach it the same way they approached smoking… information, information, information.”

Those in power have long ignored the harm caused by gambling disorders. According to a 2013 study from the NCPG and the Association of Problem Gambling Service Administrators, public funding for substance abuse is about 281 times greater than public funding for gambling abuse services. This is because gambling is in many ways a voluntary tax on, to quote from Canadian author Ronald Wright, “temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

When the government looks the other way, they themselves profit while those in poverty search for a stroke of luck that was never feasibly manufactured for them in the first place.

While gambling can be ‘fun’ when placing a healthy wager on an athletic event with a family member or a friend, when the government begins to encourage it on a broader level, it becomes a ploy by those in power to take advantage of others for their own gain.

All across New York state, people will now be able to legally participate in both good-natured sports gambling as well as potentially destructive and ruinous sports gambling. It’s up to those in power to ensure that alongside this new bill comes increased funding into services to help those suffering from gambling addiction as well as an increased effort to educate and inform the populace of its dangers.

 

Sam Bova is a freshman writing and rhetoric major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at sabova@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter at @sam_bova.

Published on February 11, 2020 at 10:21 pm